Firestorm
by Violaplayer
Summary: Heroes are made, not born. This world is not your own, but your existence condemns it. Live and fight for your just cause, before your own beliefs betray you, and find happiness as best you can. To thine own self be true, for it is the only thing left that is yours. Self-Insert
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Naruto franchise.

* * *

The first thing I remember of this world is pain and confusion and an odd kind of serenity.

There was a period of indistinct nothingness and the I found myself exposed _lost_ and outside _I don't want to be here_ then comforting warmth around me, only to be taken away _leave me alone, please, please, it _hurts and fell into exhausted sleep, against the the backdrop of malicious pressure bearing down on me. This respite was short lived, as I was once again woken by a flash of unbearable hateful energy stuffed into me suffusing my unresponsive body. Then it was done, the source of that evil, distilled intent tucked away into some distant, safe corner, and I was free to scream and cry in terror, panic, relief, and discomfort.

My name is Uzumaki Naruto. It cannot be anything else, anymore. Please listen to my story, and judge me as you will. It is all I can truly call my own.

Babies' eyes do not develop well enough to see until several weeks after birth. Those few weeks, in my second life, were some of the most confusing and miserable I have ever had the misfortune to experience. The sensations I was experiencing were utterly mystifying, and contrary to both my logical-such as it was-reasoning and instinctual responses of a baby. Baby-side was expecting a mother to cuddle and feed from. Adult-side was wondering why could not see, my limbs were not responding, and what, exactly, had just happened. That very first day, it took nearly an _hour_-a horrible, hungry, tired, uncomfortable _hour_ for anyone to find me, lying in a position of honor among the rubble.

My first days among the living passed by in a vague blur, although I reason that must have been a horrible baby. As far as I could tell, I had grown a second pair of veins to channel some sort of energy-containing substance-and they were unnaturally bloated, the energy they carried painfully corrupted. It hurt, and I could never get comfortable. Ergo, I cried. Every single moment I was awake. It's a wonder I was not strangled to death the first six months. As it was, I believe they resorted to forcibly knocking me unconscious a few times.

I was placed in the orphanage a few months after my first birthday, still pondering the transition into a supposedly fictional and scientifically impossible universe. There, I found the caretakers to be extremely perfunctory but emotionally distant, refusing to attach themselves to the child of disaster. I had believed that the trauma of my first day here was merely the unfortunately necessary process of being born into a new, quasi-magical world, but the disinterest and tension in child care specialists was igniting dismaying suspicions. It was ridiculous, and, well, rather arrogant to seriously consider that I had miraculously been reborn as a hero of a world full of superpowered beings. But I finally got confirmation on the bi-annual checkup, when I was one and a half.

I was sitting up in my crib, trying to work up to a full standing position, when a few my caretakers walked in, looking rather harried, and hastily conferred with each other in a japanese-based language I was finally starting to pick up. Finally, Curly-Hair grabbed me and brought me outside for the first time since I was originally brought to the orphanage; or, as I thought of it, the Isolation Tank. I was hustled to a formal waiting room, where an old man in white robes and a triangular hat was waiting. He gently held me up, speaking kindly, and carefully inserted a spike of chakra into my system, immediately destroying any chance of a serene environment as I exploded into wails. Something as traumatic as having a bijou sealed within would not be without reprisal-in this case, the insertion of chakra was so similar... Impressively, he did not react in any way to having a baby suddenly throwing a tantrum in his arms as he quickly and efficiently completed the scan, then held me still until my wails desisted into quiet sniffles. As I started up at -the hokage?- he sadly told me something involving hope, leaf, shinobi, and fire, before handing me back to a nurse and leaving. To my profound irritation, my understanding of the language was greatly inhibited by the lack of people willing to interact with me.

As the caretakers finally left, I stared up at the ceiling, rocking with baby giggles. I was Naruto! I had my chance to be great, a real hero, to help all those people with the advantage of foreknowledge! This was a dream come true! I could fix Neji's and Hinata's and Gaara's problems all that much... faster... This wasn't a dream, this was a nightmare come true. As the saying went, heroes were not born, they made themselves. Naruto was integral to the 'niceness' of the Narutoverse. How, exactly, was I supposed to mimic Therapy no Jutsu? I had barely been able to communicate, much less significantly influence people in my past life. I wouldn't be able to make a life-changing speech in the middle of some overpowered battle. I didn't have his incredible determination, much less his ability to unconditionally forgive anybody, no matter how they wronged me. How would I really be able to stand constant discrimination and no loving family as a support base? Naruto was some kind of situational prodigy, and accrued support by inspiring various incredible mentors and teachers. Was I expected to yell Tsunade into getting rid of her haemophobia? Impress Jiraiya with a personality and decorum so disparate from his, or Naruto's own?

Not to mention, was I mentally prepared to become a shinobi? It wasn't like the Jinchūrikki would get a choice. Kill on orders, die for something as ephemeral as the Konohagakure no Sato? Not to mention what overpowered enemies I would be facing if my future went anything like canon. I would have a great advantage being able to mentally focus so much earlier, not to mention the huge chakra reserves, but I might not have the fortitude to make the most out of these opportunities, not to mention the difficulty of getting teachers.

I would just have do my best. I would not-could not be Naruto, or anywhere near his level of positive impact upon this world, but I try my hardest, do the most with the advantages I had been afforded in this second life. I owed it to Naruto, my predecessor, the hero and savior of this death-torn world-the innocent, wonderful boy whom I had condemned to meaninglessness.

* * *

Author's Note

So, a self-insert. I really admired a few like Dreaming of Sunshine, Only a Moron, and A Cage of Blood and Circumstance. And then I got into the genre, and found... the more typical quality of a self-insert. And I found quite a few where the character was inserted into the role of Sasuke or Naruto, depending which one they thought was cooler or who they wanted to romance. Most of the time, they basically become their interpretation of the character while removing anything they see as a fault. Naruto is a hero because of his incredible strength of character and morality against everything that has gone against him in his life-integral qualities that none of us can hope to claim. I wanted to experiment with a real person, not a hero, thrust into Naruto's life. Basically, a person aware of the fact that they live on the brink of apocalypse and knowing they might as well as killed the world's savior.


	2. Chapter 2

I carefully approached the matron of the orphanage and bowed.

"Tanaka-san, I have a request of you, if I may have a moment of your time."

The incongruously intimidating lady turned a regarded me seriously.

"Speak," She allowed.

"I humbly request lessons on reading and writing. I believe this will be beneficial for all involved, as I will be able to occupy myself productively without monopolizing the valuable time of the people here. I would repay for the time and effort of these lessons by doing various extra chores for a month of thirty-one days."

The delicate woman considered this for a few lengthy moments, then nodded and directed: "Suzume-san will teach you for thirty minutes Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays until you have displayed an acceptable degree of mastery. If this takes more than a month, your extra chores will be extended for an equivalent amount of time. You will clean the bathrooms once each week, and assist with breakfast every day except Monday."

I bowed and retreated. The caretakers at the orphanage were all perfectly reasonable, if distant and formal. We had nonverbally reached the conclusion to treat my residence here as a business transaction; I would be polite and responsible, and fulfill the standard expectations of all the children there, and they would treat me politely and allow my continued residence. If I wanted anything beyond basic care, I could pay for it in work. If I desired affection, I should look for it elsewhere; they were not required love me, only take care of me, and had no desire to go above and beyond.

I had been a fan of the series and an avid reader of fan fiction, so I was embarrassingly surprised at the lack of abuse. Upon consideration, it made perfect sense; a resentful citizen was likely to work against the state, and try to leave. The average traitorous shinobi had enough power to take out a street before they were taken down, using a suicide maneuver. A jinchūrikki, any jinchūrikki, could raze at least a good portion of Konoha before they were stopped by a heavy hitter Kage level ninja, or another jinchūrikki. Therefore, do not abuse your only jinchūrikki into hating Konoha. Keep your distance, of course, but do not give the demon container a reason to want, in any way, shape, or form, revenge against you or your home.

Naruto's situation was unfortunately extreme, because of the initial lack of anyone to potentially neutralize the Kyuubi, and the mystery surrounding the appearance of the Kyuubi at all. Releasing the beast was entirely voluntary, so why had stable, loyal Kushina done it? Had the bijou coerced her? If a powerful adult ninja succumbed, a small child was a walking bomb. Was she a traitor? A child of one was very easy bait for missing-nin recruiters, especially with the assurance of surviving post-defection. Was there some unknown weakness in the seal? If there was, the only ninja left in the village who could deal with it was the Sandaime, and then there would be a new unstable jinchūrikki, and nobody beyond normal jonin in the village. To stay away from something like that was only sensible, and to tell your children as well was even more so.

I had some difficulty deciding how I should act. It was undoubtable that in any case, I would come off as rather strange-too much consideration, control, decision in anything I would do. Thus, the only option was to pretend as little as possible. It is impossible to completely disguise your character-to pretend other ideals or loyalty is easy and quite common-but to pretend to be a radically different person? Uchiha Itachi acted like the quiet, introverted, emotionally repressed person he was. He just killed people a lot and said that he enjoyed it. My physical limitations would progress normally, so I knew I would start crawling and walking at around the right time. There were similar physical limitations with learning to speak- I needed appropriate fine muscle control, in addition to actually learning the language. Other than that, adopting a reserved, quiet persona would limit unfortunate incidents. I wouldn't accidentally exhibit behavioral patterns of a person many years older than I should be and I could observe and learn before acting. Most of my problems would be social, and not being bored to tears; the least troublesome reaction would be to avoid socialization unless I was absolutely certain that my responses would be accepted. As for boredom... well, there was't much I could do during the long periods of time I was left alone except experiment with the manipulable energy I had so painfully grown a new set of veins to carry.

Manipulating chakra was difficult to get a sense for. It was both of your mind and your mind, directed by your will and the commands made by it. Your body created it and used it, permeating every cell only to be absorbed directly back into your hara-the chakra storage and production. It made everything more, somehow, allowing anything, with proper preparation, to transcend the mundane. Without proper preparation, it merely dispersed into nothingness. To successfully manipulate it required the proper combination of instinct and control; interestingly, the same combination required of a taijutsu practitioner, which was all about the proper utilization of ingrained responses.

I smiled slightly as I slipped outside and took off running. No wonder Naruto had such a dearth of attention when he didn't think it was important. We possessed more chakra than was actually healthy. Chakra was absorbed by the muscles to provide disproportionate strength, speed, agility, and traction. All people in this world reinforced with chakra to an extent; it was there, and naturally responded to any type of exertion. However, an untrained body could only gain benefit from a rather low amount of chakra, and even then used it very inefficiently. Still, before true ninja training began at seven, children produced much less chakra then their bodies' maximum absorption. In contrast, I had so much more chakra than my muscular-skeletal system could absorb, it ended up expressing itself as a constant caffeine buzz that built up if it was not used. If I wasn't allowed outside for some physical exertion, I would start apologetically bouncing off the walls. When I did go outside, I was constantly running while experimenting with my chakra, focusing more on increasing my agility rather than speed or strength. The body of a four year old is not well equipped for excessive musculature.

Agility, reflex, and coordination exercises were all very good, but for right now, I had a destination in mind. I stopped on the threshold of the Sarutobi complex to catch my breath, and then entered the main house at a more sedate pace. The central bedroom door was ajar- probably waiting for me - and I entered with a polite bow.

"Teiko-san?" I called. "Are you well?"

The heavily pregnant lady struggled up to a sitting position on the bed to look at me.

"Naruto-chan, it is not a good day." Her strained face and tired eyes looked at me as I carefully arranged the pillows to prop her up.

I swallowed. It had been a hard and dangerous pregnancy since the baby was first conceived. She had initially planned to get an abortion and try again for a higher chance of survival for both her and the baby, but she had utterly rejected that plan after the news that her husband, Sarutobi Daisuke, had died on a mission. Nominally there was a ninety-five percent chance of successful birth for the baby, and seventy percent chance for the mother. However, on the bad days, it was much more ominous, when Teiko-san could barely move and alternately couldn't stop eating or couldn't eat at all without immediately throwing it all back up.

"Is there anything I can do?" I queried.

Teiko-san sighed. "I believe I would be better for some miso," she eventually directed.

I let out my breath in relief and immediately left for the kitchen. This meant she could consume food, but didn't have the energy or will to make it herself. Miso. Pot, hot water. Soybean paste. Edamame. Rice. Seaweed. Finely chopped tofu. Salt, pepper. Sprinkle of chile. As I stirred the pot to a boil, I considered my soon-to-be sibling. Probably in an effort to give me further connections to the village (_in case of his death_, a little voice in my mind whispered), the Sandaime had decreed to me that Konohamaru would be my little brother. I had initially been very surprised, since Naruto hadn't known Konohamaru until after he became a genin, but it did make sense.

We had been told that they specifically chose jinchūrikki to have strong connections to their village, but canon Naruto only had the Sandaime for the first twelve years of his life. He did have this strange absolute loyalty to Konoha for some reason, though. I wasn't nearly as vehement regarding my loyalty, so it made sense Sarutobi-sama would want as much insurance as possible. In addition, I was significantly more mature, controlled, and simply considerate than canon Naruto; he wasn't exactly the kind of boy you would trust with a baby. Your life, certainly, but not the constant attention and care a baby requires. Teiko was initially somewhat resentful of me, but daily visits to make certain she and the baby were alright had worn away any dislike. I think the dedication I showed convinced her I would protect Konohamaru for her when she was unable. It was unfortunately likely she was half-expecting to die, and thought that any family figure with abundant time for her baby was worth the stigma of being a Jinchūrikki's leash.

Eight months ago, Sarutobi-sama had announced my promotion to sister to me during our weekly meeting: "Naruto-chan, do you what a sibling is?"

"Yes," I replied with curiosity. This was a rather different subject than the normal ones espousing the many virtues of the village, discussing morality, functions of the ninja system, or the various joys of food. Extreme levels of chakra have to come from somewhere.

"Would you like a younger brother or sister?" he asked.

"Very much," I responded with interest.

"Why?" he continued to push.

The ideal sibling is one who you love and who loves you, an inspiration to greater heights, a person who always acknowledges who you want to be and what you have done to get there. It is a partnership of unequals, each supporting the other in different ways. I would treasure a little sibling, love him or her absolutely unconditionally. You know this, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"I want someone I could love," I said aloud.

He appeared to accept my answer, getting up and motioning for me to follow him. We walked together through the streets of Konoha, to the high-class residential district, where he stopped in front of the Saurtobi clan compound. Sarutobi-sama actually lived in the diplomatic district, in the Hokage residence, a ways off the heart of the village but close to any potentially troublesome areas. A hokage doesn't need to be protected; the ANBU are there to tell them where to go and who is at fault.

We walked into the main house, where a couple sat waiting in the living room. Sarutobi-sama smiled surreptitiously as he gestured over to the woman, who kneeled in front of me to look me in the face.

"Teiko-san is making a baby right now in her belly, my grandchild. He or she will be your little brother or sister. In later meetings, I will give you advice, but for now, introduce yourself to Teiko and my son Daisuke." Sarutobi-sama smiled congenially and left, giving Teiko-san a significant look. She gazed after him plaintively, but hardened her face and began to speak.

Shaking myself out of my contemplation, I carried the finished miso back to Teiko-san, staring at her accusingly whenever she slowed down. Seeing as I was an untrained four-year-old, and she an experienced jounin, this had no effect whatsoever. Finally, she set down her bowl, and motioned for me to come close to her. As I clambered onto the bed next to her face, she achingly drew up a hand to clench on my shoulder.

"Promise me," she quietly stated, her eyes suddenly looking into mine, burning with a cold, emphatic fire, "that you will take care of him."

"I swear," I responded seriously.

She let go of me abruptly and waved me away, refusing too look back at me.

"You may leave," she dismissed me.

I nodded, and left out the door.

When I came back the next day, as I had done every day since I first met her, she was gone. I didn't hear from her again until six months later, when the Sandaime gave me a funeral kimono, a lecture on how proper behavior, and a baby that no one could get to stop crying.


	3. Chapter 3

I rolled over in bed and _smashed_ the blaring alarm, wincing as the contraption fell apart into tiny, contorted fragments. At least the chakra reinforcement was approaching reflexive level mastery. Just in time, really; today was the first day of Ninja Academy. Thoroughly awakened by the stinging in my hand, I got up and started to prepare to leave. I chuckled softly as I bound my long red hair into a high ponytail- unlike canon Naruto, I had definitely inherited and expressed the Uzumaki genes regarding appearance, although for some reason I had Minato's blue eye color.

Luxuries taken for appearance were a type of bragging for ninja. Clothes too easily became torn and bloodstained, so nice, pretty, custom apparel was a sign that a person was good enough to never be hit and therefore have to spend ludicrous sums replacing outfits. Jewelry got tangled and broke. Long hair provided a handhold in taijutsu and otherwise flew in your face, plus requiring valuable time for maintenance. Furthermore, high chakra potential actually had an effect on appearance. Two average-looking civilians could have, for example, a pink haired baby, and know she would manifest some unusual manner of control over her chakra. Those parents also knew their baby would inevitably be recruited into the ninja forces. Part of the reason Hinata was regarded as such a failure was because her dark blue hair and violet-tint eyes, as opposed to the standard brunet and pure gray eyes, promised incredible potential as a ninja. Her 'weakness' mocked the potential of the Hyuuga clan as her coloring pronounced her to greatness among them.

Well, today was the day I might meet all these heroes of a previous life. The academy education typically began at age seven and ended at twelve, with ten clases of thirty students each starting every six months. For each class, there was one or two particular groups reserved for high profile students: clan heirs, prodigies, civilian-born with special capacities. Those classes weren't so much harder or advanced than freer. Unlike the normal classes, any and all rote repetition was expected to be on your own time. They introduced concepts both basic and advanced, expecting you to learn them to mastery without supplementary homework to drill them into your head. Children were encouraged to find their own personalized skill and develop it prior to graduation; to this end, minor homework was encouraged but ultimately optional.

After grabbing a stick of dango from the fridge, I locked the door of my apartment and took of running through the streets to the Academy. The apartment was actually part of the deal of starting official ninja training. As an orphan, I received a scholarship package from the academy, continued based on either proof of commitment-staying within the top half of the class-, and/or evidence of a special skill. Seeing as I was immediately placed within the priority class, I guess holding the Kyuubi counted as a special skill. If any orphan had enough potential to garner a spot in the priority class, they had their scholarship continued no matter their ranking.

Finally, I touched down at the Academy gates, not even out of breath. Parents were standing around, every ninja subtly alert to my presence, though I doubt anyone who wasn't both looking for it and sensitive to the minute flare of chakra would have been able to tell. And there was Asuma-ojisan, who was going to perform the function of primary guardian in the application process.

I went over and greeted him, and he grinned and patted my hair before he handed me a hefty stack of forms and told me,

"Fill out as much as you can before giving it back to me, signatures in the right places, things like that."

I quickly flipped through the large packet, and chucked quietly. Oh, interesting, the form was another kind of test. Probably another assessment sorting out civilian-born with potential; difficult, tedious, and completed without assistance, it selected for children with self-originating drive, ability to sort through complex (and later on misleading) instructions, and prior learning and intelligence. It started off easy, with hiragana and simple words and directions, but the last page I peeked at was pretty much identical to the papers I had seen littering the Hokage's desk. I worked through to the twentieth page, where the majority of the words were unfamiliar kanji, and informed Asuma-ojisan that I could not continue. He took the packet, waved me off to the opening ceremony, and left to turn it in to the center where he would take care of the personal information.

I was already fidgeting in my seat as students finished trickling in, which was... worrisome. It had barely been an hour, and the chakra buildup was already causing difficulties. I sighed; it seemed that I would have to do the five A.M workout after all if I didn't want to be utterly hyperactive during the school day. Finally, the Sandaime mounted the dais and began to speak.

"Today is a very important day for all of you here. It is the day in which you start upon the path of a ninja, a servant to your village and the people who live here. You will encounter work beyond what you ever thought yourself capable, the unobtrusive honor and glory of serving Konohagakure no Sato, and challenges that will change you to your very marrow. But we all shall prevail, bolstered forward by our Will of Fire, to serve an entity far greater than the sum of its parts..."

I zoned out, listening with half an ear, as the Sandaime ran through a short and vaguely inspirational speech. I could see Shikamaru and Choji in the back row, both of them having mastered the art of paying enough attention to understand while focusing an activity far more interesting. Ino sat in the seat next to them, edging away from the two boys and looking quite huffy, showily focusing on the speech. I couldn't see Hinata or Shino anywhere, but Kiba was near the center of the audience, looking supremely bored-no emotional control, that one. Near the podium, Sasuke was -_grinning?_- in expectation and excitement. And over in the corner, Sakura was curling into herself with an expression not so much shy as uncomfortable and painfully out of place. Poor girl, with so much potential she probably got way too much pressure from the ninja recruiters and not nearly enough support. The more talented a ninja, even a student, the more they were left alone to figure out their own style that worked best for them, and to limit pigeonholing. Unfortunately, without a ninja family to support her and low self-confidence, she was often left floundering with incredibly high expectations and no idea what to do.

I was jerked out of my reverie by the clapping following the speech, and all the students stood up, sorted into their respective groups, and we followed our designated instructor to our respective classrooms. After a moment of deliberation, I chose a seat next to Shikamaru, although I got no reaction from either him or Choji in the cacophony.

If I didn't want to go any more insane than I already was, I needed actual friends. While I might have had the experience of a civilian adult, my mind was profoundly affected by the state of this body; a fact I was very grateful for, as without a baby's developing brain I would never have gotten anywhere close to fluency in the dialect of Japanese they spoke here. I may be able to interact comprehensively with the adult ninjas, but that didn't mean I had the experience or knowledge to understand them. Not to mention, as a simple fact of life adults will not interact with a small child as an equal. Shikamaru was an optimal choice for me as a potential friend: he was smart enough to keep up with me, wouldn't care about social necience, and was a person who, even as a child, I could respect in common courtesy. Ino, for example, eventually grew up to be an admirable kunoichi, but for now was a slightly bratty, albeit protective eight year old.

Unfortunately for my accumulating deficiency of attention, the rest of the day was standard 'first day of school' I remembered from my first life. Apparently, bureaucracy was one of the universal truths of the multiverse. Ikatsu-sensei had no obvious reaction to my name when he read it off his lists, but he was a ninja, and otherwise there wasn't much opportunity for student-teacher interaction. Gauging if my education was going to be sabotaged would have to wait.

Finally, we were released, and I took off at a sprint, my surroundings blurring as I reinforced my body with chakra to reach speeds far beyond the limits of unideal arrangements of muscle and blood. No wonder Tsunade's strength enhancement was legendary- whereas normal chakra boosting was just artificially increasing rate of chakra flow, that level of enhancement required saturating each muscle to its maximum capacity at its moment of contraction, reinforcing the opposing relaxing muscle to prevent it being ripped from the tendons, each to the different exact specification of the target muscle. And every single movement involves the complex interaction of different muscle groups, plus oxygen and calorie requirements... it was an incredible feat of medical knowledge and perfect chakra control.

Even more fascinating, when taijutsu training to increase the ability of the body to produce and utilize chakra, the intent upon which you train affected the absorption of chakra. For example, if you sprinted and ran and trained while focusing on speed, your potential speed would get higher much faster than potential strength; probably due to the mental component of chakra. The interesting part was in the physics, how force was mass times velocity squared as proven in both universes, so technically, there should be a proportional increase for speed and strength. The Academy curriculum included a lot of science, especially physics, and then in ninjutsu training we learned how to utterly destroy those laws. Or maybe, chakra was an extension of energy that worked around the laws using directly controllable pure energy... This called for research.

But for right now, I had a promise to collect on. I breezed by the paperwork ninjas going through the immense paperwork generated every day, ignoring their dirty looks for disturbing the mountains of paper, briefly stopped to check if Sarutobi-ojiisama was currently occupied. Hmm, busy, but not in an engagement. I burst in with an expectant look, and he looked up at me a chuckled, before gesturing at a well worn notebook, a small textbook, and rather nice set of journals and writing utensils.

"Have fun, but keep in mind that damages will come out of your own money," he warned amusedly as I grabbed the materials, bowed quickly but deeply with a sincere thank you, and dashed back out of the tower.

Oh _yes_ oh yes; my prize for adequate success at the academy was fuinjutsu lessons, which had fascinated me long before my rebirth. Konoha's current head of the Sealing Corps, Nara Shikako, had described Fuinjutsu as 'the language of your soul imposed upon this imperfect world', which was fantastically interesting. Furthermore, seals were proven to actually warp reality as opposed to merely work around it like normal jutsu: summoning major kami, teleportation, storage of three dimensional objects in a manipulable two-dimensional plane... fuinjutsu was almost as broken as the mangekyo sharingan, and seemingly without such extreme limitations. There was something strange with the general lack of interest in an field of study with so much potential, though... As an celebration of my entering the Academy, Ojiisama had gifted with both Nara-sama's notes in her beginning study of fuinjutsu and her published book, a compilation of the principles and practices for initiates into the art. Again, strangely, while not exactly widely available, it wasn't too difficult for the average academy student to obtain a copy of the textbook; you just needed to turn in a recommendation from a jounin to the Sealing Corps administration.

I finally reached the Hokage residence, where Konohamaru lived, nominally with Ojiisama, attended by a regular collection of nurses, with regular visits from both me and Asuma-ojisan.

"Tadaima," I called out, noting the departing chakra signals of unseen ANBU and apparent relief of Konohamaru's attendant.

I was rewarded when the _adorable_ two-year-old Konohamaru trundled out to meet me with wide smile.

"Nee-tan!" he giggled as I picked him up and hugged him.

"Ay, otouto, are you practicing using your chakra?" I queried with a proud smile. Konohamaru had huge chakra reserves for a toddler-enough for about five minutes practice a day- and as far as I could tell, he seemed to have a much better grasp of it starting so young.

"Spins," he informed me with deep satisfaction.

The current caretaker -how often _did_ they change?- unobtrusively left, presumably to prepare a snack, as per usual for my visits.

I carried Konohamaru over to the pile of cushions next to the window, set up my journal for notes and calligraphy materials, and opened Nara-sama treatise on fuinjutsu to the first page.

* * *

Author's Note:

I just realized... that I never said this Naruto is female. Ah, sorry. Just to make it clear, Naruto is four in the previous chapter, and she learned to speak eventually, although in many ways she hasn't absorbed many conventions- sometimes she uses the wrong name suffixes, difficulty responding without planning out her speech, things like that. She speaks formally because she specifically focused on being polite, and to not ostracize people with rudeness. Finally, she did _not_ get custody of Konohamaru. The Sandaime showed Naruto the baby brother she was so excited about, and Naruto played with him a bit, as we see a five-year-old Itachi doing with baby Sasuke in a flashback. Naruto maintained the relationship, and is surprisingly good for a four year old at caring for him, but they don't even live in the same place. Fuinjutsu, introduced in this chapter, is based on Silver Queen's _genius_ explanation/idea in her incredible fanfic _Dreaming of Sunshine_.


	4. Chapter 4

I raced through the arithmetic sheet, grabbed Shikamaru's sheet, raced through it slightly slower as I was using my off hand, and put them to the side almost exactly as Shikamaru finished setting up the Shogi board. It wasn't as if either if us would actually get any benefit-I'd already done years of math, even if now I had to use different words, and Shikamaru understood it and categorically refused to do any sort of busywork. Ikatsu-sensei could glare all he wanted, but by this point neither Shikamaru nor I cared. Since we wouldn't get into any actual ninja training until partway through second year, I was pretty much repeating first grade. There had been a few signs of moving me up a year or two, but for some reason Oji-sama was completely against it.

Sasuke drifted over from the corner where Shikamaru, Choji, and I sheltered him from his fangirl horde. There are, indeed, some things self-respecting people should not have to witness. It wasn't nearly as bad as in many of the fanfiction I had read, -mostly just a large porportion of the class with crushes on a single, admittedly cute child- but you can feel your faith in feminism dying inside when a bunch of seven year olds engage in a subtle, underhanded, cutthroat competition, over who got to sit next to 'Sasuke-kun'. The fact that they completely ignored the three people already taking those treasured spots was initially somewhat amusing, and then just pathetic. The fact that they couldn't comprehend that Sasuke wasn't interested in girls yet -or until at least twice his age- was utterly cringe-worthy. Pre-massacre Sasuke himself had been quite a shock; he was pretty much the sweetest little kid you would ever hope to meet. A bit afraid of the female population, but by now I was of the same attitude.

"Who's house are we visiting today?" Sasuke asked over the clack of Shogi pieces. Freaking Anaguma castle...

"Your parents still don't want us over? Mine, I believe," Choji asked.

"No... Sorry, something about property destruction," Sasuke replied, shooting me a glare.

"I have better control now," I reassured him, although for some reason everybody looked nervous at that. Feint or real? And there's the lancer to worry about...

"Disregarding custom exploding tags, there was the exploding tree incident, and the dehydrated water incident, and the so-called multifaceted wind blade incident... We have more than enough evidence of your pyromaniac tendencies." Shikamaru noted.

"Both Itachi-san and Hokage-sama appreciated the wind blade," I protested.

"Aniki also forbade you to train with chakra within a hundred meter radius of either a clan member or the compound. Nara-sama didn't do the same only because Shikamaru-kun actually helped design it without being forced to and he thought it was funny." Sasuke retorted.

"Checkmate," Shikamaru sighed.

"Not for another seventeen moves." Technically, the longest I could protract it was twenty one moves, but seventeen moves allowed me the satisfaction of taking out both his gold generals.

"I meant the conversation."

"Turn in your papers and _be quiet_ for the next lesson," Ikatsu-sensei called out. He had initially put me outside in the hallway almost every lesson, but had given up after he sent me, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Ino, and Sakura outside during a math lesson and I started teaching them algebra. Or maybe that was how to make their own exploding tags? Those two kind of went hand in hand. I think he decided that since I actually would shut up when told, boredom was a worse punishment, and less destructive on his paycheck. To be fair, after the first few weeks I deserved most of them, and he never sent me out during anything important.

It had been nearly four months since the start of the Academy, and although it was rather easy and boring, that was nothing compared to the years I spent as a baby and small toddler. I had met, well, friends. Ironically, in our little band, _Sasuke_ was the most normal one. I was obsessive about training and getting stronger in addition to an adult's worth of memories, Shikamaru was a cynical old man in a child's life, and Choji was almost inhumanly perceptive, understanding, and forgiving. Compared to us, Sasuke was a sweet, helpful seven year old with a passion for fighting arts although a disinclination to actually use them.

I had realized, just a few weeks into my friendships, that my mind was definitively affected by my new body. I wasn't just a small adult, I was a child, with a child's mind, a child's reflexive behaviors. I may be far beyond most of my peers in mental development, but I reacted exactly the same way to bribes, to threats, to attention. I could also absorb information in the same way- thank goodness I didn't have an accent in the Japanese language they spoke here. They probably would have thought I was being raised by the Kyuubi or something. The resilience of a child's mind was also probably what kept me sane, never being treated with the casual respect of one adult to another. Fortunately, ninja didn't do nearly the amount of coddling the adults of my previous world did. If the six year old is ready, by all means make him a chuunin, and you _are_ expected to follow their orders.

Finally, school let out. Choji's mother was waiting outside the gates, smiling as we converged upon her.

"Do we have everyone?"

I nodded. "Konohamaru is spending the day with his Ojii-sama."

She smiled at us, then beckoned for us to follow her. To her credit, she had not hesitated at all with either me or Sasuke when Choji had introduced us, with a beaming smile, as his friends. As we arrived in their house, with the instinct of all children, we congregated in the kitchen, quietly working on either homework or personal projects as we waited for Choji's mother to finish the sushi she was making.

Shinobi, here, were mostly super-soldiers, although we did have a subset of the more traditional cloak and dagger type. Technically, the samurai did the same job as us, but ninja were both more mobile and available to the general populace. Samurai were the soldiers, ninja were the special ops, the guerrilla platoons. The daimyo and official government commanded the samurai in service to the country. Any civilian could contract a ninja team, to protect a caravan, destroy competition, or fulfill some function that would have required specialized machinery in my old world. A very common C-rank for chuunin was to prepare the land for farming; plowing the fields with earth jutsu, irrigation with water jutsu, clear out weeds with fire, provide power for machines with electricity. Storms at sea could be controlled by a competent team to prevent any kind of damage to ship or cargo. Mining industries contracted sensor nin to find valuable veins of ore, companies requested illusionists for safe entertainment. Fuinjutsu nin usually ended up as researchers and developers; one seal to hear your water pipes, another to keep your food cold, "batteries" to store electrical energy for machinery, lights in the night without fire.

The reason most ninja didn't use Fuinjutsu was for their own sanity. Fuinjutsu was the art of self-expression, meaning as understood by your spirit expressed through symbolic art, powered by your chakra. It was basically a language you made for yourself, that made the most sense for yourself. However, to discover and express this language, you had to accept yourself. None of the little illusions people used to get through the day. Understanding that the people you killed, for this petty little mission, were decent human being, with loved ones and people who loved them, hopes and dreams and obligations, that will never again live. Accepting, yet still controlling the dark parts of your soul, the greed, the hatred, the envy, the desire to take all you want at everyone else's expense. Knowing the morals you actually held, not just the ingrained societal customs, and why. In times of necessity, all ninja were called up to fight. We killed, murdered, destroyed the well-being of innocent civilians. Most ninja would go insane, for good reason. Fuinjutsu didn't allow coping mechanisms. Children, their hands not yet covered in blood and hypocrisy, were simply too young and unformed to have yet determined the language of their soul.

A few weeks ago, in a spectacularly explosive event after months of reaserch and meditation, I had developed my own explosive tag. Everyone remotely interested in Fuinjutsu personalized all the standard seals; when a seal was written in your own style, you could plant a seal anywhere, without the bother of ink, with a twist of chakra. They never lasted long, though, and had to be activated immediately, so tags were still useful. As my current project, I was attempting to get the planting time down to an interval where I could use it in combat. It was... frustrating.

It had taken the expected several months to develop my understanding of the standard exploding seal to the point where I could personalize it, but after that, it had still taken me hours of meditation and a quarter of my chakra to plant a seal using only chakra. I currently had it down to fifteen minutes and about five times as much chakra as the substitution jutsu, but that was far too extravagant for combat. Anything more than a fraction of a second was too long, really. I knew it was possible: the Yondaime's signature for single combat was to plant one of his Hiraishin seals directly on the enemy. If I could get the time down, especially for several different seals, I would have a fantastic advantage in Taijutsu.

An explosion. A spherical construct of fire. Particles moving out from a point. Fire and wind and earth, in a expression of chakra. Molecules destabilize and burst outward. Gases release, combust, increase in volume. Expansion of energy. Shock waves. _Explosion_.

My vision rippled, and a spiraling seal with the kanji for explode at the center grew out of the chakra-stabilizing paper I was using to counteract the explosion. I sighed and looked up. Thirteen minutes, fifty three seconds. Choji's mother delicately placed a plate of salmon sushi in front of me, gesturing to eat.

"Finally woke up?" Sasuke asked.

I nodded.

"Ready to finish that shuriken project?"

* * *

A knock sounded on the door. Choji rose up to answer it, welcoming in Uchiha Itachi. Itachi bowed to the Akimichi matriarch, briefly smiled at Sasuke, and began to speak.

"Akimichi-sama, may I request that Sasuke spends the night here?"

That was a surprise. Anyone could tell the Uchiha were becoming increasingly isolationist, and their typical somewhat abrasive natures and arrogance meant that people weren't falling over themselves to rectify that trend. If the clan heir, without express input from his parents, was telling his younger sibling to stay home tonight, there was probably some huge issue in their home life. Sasuke's expression was an interesting mix of petrified, shocked, ecstatic, and worried; I idly wondered how it all fit on one face. Choji's mother's face clearly expressed that while she too was extremely surprised, and there was a hard glint of calculation, she was more than happy to organize a sleepover. That woman is a dragon when it comes to her son.

"Of course he can stay," the Akimichi matriarch replied. "I will contact everyone else's parents and the children can have a proper party."

Shikamaru and I stiffened and glanced at each other. I could feel my face become blank as I retreated into my head to consider the implications. Shikamaru merely muttered,

"Mendokuse," and slumped down, resting his head on crossed arms on the table.

Sasuke attempted to reach up to Itachi and ask him what was going on, but Itachi poked his forehead and murmured,

"I'll tell you when everything is over."

Sasuke didn't look happy, but he retreated back to the table. Meanwhile, my mind whirled.

Sasuke was seven, that had been his age at the massacre, hadn't it? It definitely fit... isolation and general dislike by other citizens to the Uchiha, and Sasuke had mentioned his family acting somewhat strangely. Also, it was extremely strange that the Uchiha head would allow his younger child to stay over without any kind of verification of the parents, and without any kind of formality. I could be completely off base, of course, but it was very likely the massacre would be tonight. Shikamaru probably suspected something similar, but on a much smaller scale.

Which meant, I wasn't letting Sasuke out of my sight for a week.

Plus, hadn't canon Sasuke somehow interrupted Itachi? And then the famous 'you lack hatred' speech. But then again, canon Sasuke's only connection before team seven had been his clan, mostly Itachi; canon Naruto was not Sasuke's choice of friend, and as Shikamaru and Choji weren't prone to showing off their strengths Sasuke wouldn't have respected them enough to consider them a potential friend.

Itachi himself... had not been as traumatizing as I expected. I knew what would happen to him, what he would be forced to do, but for some reason, none of that existed when I met him. Sasuke had happily introduced me to Itachi as 'the only sane girl in the class, she's actually really neat, and does _explosions_, she's my friend, her name's Naruto, isn't that a weird name, especially for girl- _oww_! Hey! Stoppit!" I had nodded and smiled and bowed and said, 'honored to meet you, Uchiha-san' and it had been just- a meeting with a friend's lauded older brother. I guess in my previous world, I had deified Uchiha Itachi to the point where I forgot he was still human.

After that, I had significant difficulty focusing on my homework, although I was relieved that everyone's guardians gave them permission to stay. Akimichi-sama had even been thoughtful enough to send a message to Konohamaru.

* * *

I had insisted on escorting Sasuke back to the Uchiha clan compound the next morning, but that didn't make it any better when we heard nothing but utter silence beyond the compound walls. Sasuke was pale and shaking, while I myself was nearing emotional shutdown, and an ANBU stood guard outside. I followed Sasuke as he ran up to the guard and demanded,

"What happened?"

The guard clearly didn't know what to do with the recently discovered only survivor of the massacre, so he stated clearly,

"No one's allowed in without proper authoritization, kid."

"What happened!" Sasuke's shill, panicked scream rent the air, and a team of ANBU suddenly appeared -_I hadn't sensed them coming_-, and stopped, apparently as flummoxed as the guard. Finally, Wolf started ahead and awkwardly attempted to pick up the panicking Sasuke. It probably took all of his training as an elite ninja not to drop him. He shunshined off, presumably to someone who could look after Sasuke for a while.

I stared after him miserably, before turning to Cat and requesting,

"Please take me to him."

* * *

They locked us in a hospital room.

They locked a hysterical seven year old and his friend, in a hospital room, without any kind of entertainment or explanation. I couldn't believe it- they didn't even provide us with any food or water. Sasuke had long since screamed himself hoarse, and beaten on the walls, to no effect. Now he was curled up next to me on the bed, tense as a board, cutting off circulation in my wrist with the strength of his grip. I was just trying not to move, as any sudden movement gave him a full-body flinch, before grabbing me again even tighter.

I knew I couldn't have affected the Uchiha Massacre, but there was a significant difference between intellectually realizing an atrocity will happen and you have no power to stop it, and seeing the results trembling and pale in your arms when all you can say is a meaningless 'sorry'...

Finally, the lock turned and the door swung open, as the Hokage walked in. He seemed to have aged thirty years since the last time I had seen him a month ago, the hard-edged serenity so calming in his face morphed into a picture of loss and exhaustion.

"Sasuke-chan..."

Sasuke hadn't moved off of me, but he was pouring every ounce of focus onto the Sandaime.

"Sasuke-chan, you are undoubtably wondering what, exactly has happened." He sighed. "Last night, every single member of your clan except you was murdered." Blunt, but dancing around the issue would just make it worse.

Sasuke relaxed his grip in shock. "...what?"

The Hokage looked at him seriously, without the condensation of pity.

"You are now an orphan, Sasuke-kun. We will handle your living situation, and inform you of arrangements later."

Sasuke simply stared.

"Dead? But... wh-what about Aniki? He wouldn't die..."

The Hokage closed his eyes and sighed.

"There has been no sign of Itachi-san since yesterday afternoon. We have not found a body, but neither has he checked in."

The Sandaime took one last look at him, nodded to me and left out the door. There was, again, the tell-tale click of the door being locked. Hopefully they wouldn't forget about us... Sasuke lay against me, boneless, especially terrifying compared to his earlier tension.

Finally, he turned his head and looked at me.

In a dead face, two eyes spun sharingan.

* * *

Author's note:

So, this is a two-part chapter, around a very young Naruto and rookie nine, and the Uchiha massacre. The second part will be published... soonish... for an undefined value of 'soon'... definitely not as long a wait as this one. After that, we have another part where Naruto is around nine, and then _finally_ we get to canon. Also, I am going to start posting various character and situation analyses at the beginning of appropriate chapters, explaining my view of a character and how that explains their reactions to changed events.

So, the Uchiha Massacre still happened, but involved Sasuke very differently. In the manga, Sasuke is missing-nobody knows where he is- until he stumbles upon Itachi finishing up the massacre. Itachi basically had to come up with something on the spot to make certain Sasuke would survive and grow strong, while distracting him from Obito and vice versa. Basically, he's panicking, not thinking clearly, and he goes overboard-just like five years later, when Sasuke interrupts him with Naruto. In this fic, he made certain Sasuke was out of the way, and he does have a plan in place to get Sasuke to grow strong hopefully without becoming utterly psychotic.

To make it clear, in this chapter, after 4 months at the academy, Naruto is friends, good friends but definitely not nakama, with Shikamaru, Choji, and Sasuke. Of all of them, she is initially closest to Shikamaru, because she can actually have an intelligent conversation with him and intellectual stimulation, and vice versa. Naruto knew that the massacre had probably happened, so she insisted upon going with Sasuke when he went home. Itachi told Sasuke to stay with Choji to get him out of the fire line for the massacre. The ANBU suddenly got confirmation that Sasuke was alive, but had no idea what to do with him, so they just put him somewhere he wouldn't cause problems. They put Naruto with him, because she asked, she was there, and while they didn't know what to do with Sasuke, they definitely knew it wasn't a good idea to leave him completely alone for hours on end.

I am very, very happy that so many people have seen this work and liked it. It makes the heart-shaped thing in my chest warm. My actual heart is unfortunately still buried under finals. Why is it that we have to have an emotional reaction to everything we see, and write it down? Is apathy unacceptable for some reason?

Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

_There is this trend in fanfiction where the Uchiha massacre is somehow absolute. It either happens or it doesn't, but if it does happen Sasuke and whatever protagonist might accompany him interrupts Itachi exactly as he kills the parents. Then Itachi does the exact same speech 'testing my capacity' speech, generally ignoring the companion, until the tsukiyomi attack. Itachi then fails to kill the companion, said companion valiantly tries to save Sasuke from the tsukiyomi with a 50% chance of success, and everyone miraculously survives. Somehow. A monologue after detailing how unlikely it was for everyone to survive intact is optional._

_The pattern of Sasuke walking in at exactly the worst moment is omnipresent, no matter what may have changed from canon, although logically Itachi would have changed the circumstances in response to a Sasuke with wildly different habits. Sasuke is constantly with Itachi and/or clan members or training before the massacre. Any friends, especially outside the clan, is a major deviation. So, different Sasuke, different plan from Itachi._

* * *

I walked into the Satutobi clan house, and called out,

"Tadaima!"

The sound of running feet heralded Konohamaru's entrance.

"Nee-chan! Where were you? It's been a week! Oji-san never came, and then he's been really busy, and you never came and they just said you were with a friend but you wouldn't just leave me so what happened?"

I winced. They had fed us at regular intervals, and eventually provided a few books, but it had been three days before a Yamanaka therapist and mind-walker could see Sasuke. I had thought I would get to leave then, but the authorities wanted Sasuke contained for as long as possible while they figured out what to do about the sudden lack of a major clan and addition of a high-profile orphan. Apparently, they, whoever_ they_ was, were going to let me go, but the Yamanaka had decreed Sasuke had already developed a significant attachment to me, and I provided a much needed psychological stabilizing factor for Sasuke. Thus, we both got locked in the room. Again. And as we were in a containment room, unfortunately, the walls and windows had been chakra-reinforced, so there was no escaping through the window.

Thank goodness there was a full bathroom connected to our bedroom.

"I'm sorry, Konohamaru. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I was locked up for a while. And I won't have much time for probably a month. My friend is in a really bad situation, and I need to make certain he'll be alright."

Well, that was one way to put it. Oh, sorry, Konohamaru, I'm busy making sure the last Uchiha doesn't turn into a psychopath and mass-murderer, oh, and it'd be nice if he wasn't completely insane as well, although you wouldn't know it from the current extremely compassionate, traumatized little kid he is…

"Take me with you." Konohamaru demanded.

"Konohamaru, I have a two-room apartment. You'd be sleeping on the floor," I warned.

Oh dear, the doe-eyed look of betrayal.

"Please? I can look after myself, but I don't want to be left alone..."

I considered it. The standard decision in this kind of situation would be to not let Konohamaru anywhere near Sasuke, but Konohamaru probably was being left alone all day. It might even help Sasuke, to have someone to look after. Of course, 'otouto' was probably a huge trigger right now...

Wait a moment. Sasuke was horrified with the thought Itachi might have died, not proclaiming vengeance on him. He didn't know Itachi had massacred the clan. Nobody knew Itachi had massacred the Uchiha clan. But hadn't he totally messed up Sasuke about it last time? When he had interrupted… right. Itachi made sure Sasuke was somewhere else this time for the whole night. But, it would eventually be found out that there was a missing-nin Uchiha when they were all supposed to be dead. Obito had recruited Itachi from the massacre, and as part of Akatsuki Itachi wouldn't exactly be low-profile. As an S-ranked nin, Itachi wouldn't be low-profile, and it was quite clear that he wasn't staying affiliated to Konoha.

But Itachi would've had some plan about Sasuke… and it would probably become apparent fast, to make sure Sasuke wouldn't go down the wrong path.

"One week, Konohamaru." I finally decided. "It'll take a week to get everything set up, and then if it is still bad around here, you can come live with me."

Konohamaru looked pathetically grateful, which only reaffirmed my idea that it was a good idea to get him out of here. It was going to be a pain caring for a four-year-old child and traumatized seven-year-old at the same time, though.

"All right, nee-chan."

I sighed.

"Come here," I beckoned.

He came forward, still looking depressed but still dealing with everything amazingly well. Admittedly, as his de-facto main parental figure, I'd never had much tolerance for tantrums or illogical behavior. Something unpleasant exists and effects you, and you can't do anything about it, so survive and learn from it, and try not to make anything else unpleasant.

Konohamaru really was a great child, and clearly very intelligent and talented. Compared to now, his behavior and abilities in cannon screamed emotional neglect-desperate for attention from any type of familial figure. The Sandaime wanted for time much more than money, after all, and you cannot pay someone else to love your child. Look after them, yes, but not love them. In my experience with children, you absolutely cannot spoil a child with love-although that included loving them enough to say no.

It was unfortunate, but… to the world outside, Konohamaru wasn't just a child, he was a major figure in both his clan and to the village. He would always be a symbol, a representative of something much larger than himself. If he couldn't maintain an iron control of discipline, he would have a miserable life, every honest reaction spiraling out of control.

The only escape from being the ambassador of Konohagakure would be to become an S-ranked shinobi, and by that point he would be overly influential for a completely different reason. At S-rank, the only thing that mattered was what you actually did, for what reasons you brought your power to bear. Plus, there was a documented correlation between strength as a ninja and eccentricity-probably another non-understood effect of chakra. For an S-ranked ninja, people didn't worry about political ramifications of saying a girl was pretty, they figured out how to manipulate the girl to manipulate said S-ranked shinobi into serving their own ends. There were a lot of S-rankers, of all disciplines, that really hated politics, so S-ranked ninja were left out of political maneuvering unless they chose to enter the political arena themselves. There were fewer bloodbaths that way.

But shaking aside such constricting futures, Konohamaru was proving a considerate and empathetic child, and I couldn't have been happier.

I knelt down and smiled, at Konohamaru's eyelevel, and quickly enveloped him in a hug.

"I love you, otouto."

* * *

There were a lot of unconnected ninja floating around, possessing jobs that really didn't mesh well with obligations; partially you didn't come home eighty percent of the time. Pets, plants, rent, unplanned emergencies did not work well in conjunction with th orderly, repetitive fashion of civilians' lives that provided necessary things like food and running water and a place to call home. Thus, the Shinobi Barracks, a series of apartments for the working ninja were created. They were all two-room apartments, a place to sleep and a kitchen, and there were available services that would take care of pets, and they would understand if the rent came a year or two late. The only time they would actually discontinue a lease was a ninja being declared dead, although they had rather humiliating ways of enforcing that the bills got paid eventually. They didn't even charge you rent on a weekly basis for times not actually utilizing the rooms. One of these apartments was even part of the package for orphan ninja academy students. Most people only moved out when they got married, and there were quite a few occupants in the complex that would never have a serious relationship like that.

I returned to my tiny apartment, where I had deposited Sasuke for the time being. Upon the recommendation of our assigned therapist, Sasuke and I were supposed to move into adjacent apartments in another section of shinobi housing complex.

Apparently, Sasuke and I were not mentally healthy. How so very _greatly _surprising. I quote, we were 'criminally socially and societally mal-integrated,' showing signs of 'obsessive coping mechanisms', and expressing 'dependency issues I would normally have first to go, but since its actually helping with all the other problems anyone who tried to wean you off would _deserve_ the backlash.' You would think that I was an adult who had been isolated for years, desperately preparing so that I could survive until my thirteenth birthday, and unable to express ninety percent of my emotions and thoughts to anyone for fear of _other _people's admittedly justified fear and paranoia of a demon fox. You would think that Sasuke just found out that everyone he loved is dead, no-one has any idea why _he_ isn't dead yet, all the while dealing with pre-existing inadequacy issues, and that he latched onto the first person to actually help him, treat him as an equal, interact with him with understanding but without the condensation of pity. People tend to be idiots.

So, I was moving to an apartment on the other side of the building in order to room next to Sasuke. After all, the whole arrangement was two vital future assets to Konoha for the resource drain of almost none! I could teach Sasuke things like how to cook and clean up after yourself, make certain he wouldn't commit suicide or waste away in depression, and we would make certain that each other forged ourselves into good little weapons in the pursuit of our goal that Konoha could use.

It actually was necessary. Uchiha resentment had only increased with the massacre, although they weren't going to say anything in front of a previously decent child. Most of them. After all, Sasuke already had quite a few 'aggressive pursuers', and right now, he was incredibly vulnerable, and ninja knew revenge and pleasure. A person in the role of caretaker probably had some sort of ulterior motive, and would be in a position of extreme power over Sasuke.

But now, a gleam of interest had returned to Sasuke's previously dead, despairing eyes.

"There's still something," Sasuke informed me desperately.

I focused.

"Tell me as we go," I responded, heading out the door and falling into an easy run alongside Sasuke.

"You know how they can't find Aniki? There's this place he always left me messages. He's not dead, and he'd worry about me, so he'd leave a message there. Aniki's _good_ at hiding things, nothing would be found there without me."

Sasuke seemed really certain of this- perhaps some kind of mental suggestion? That was certainly in the realm of Itachi's mastery over genjutsu.

We arrived at the compound, and I let Sasuke take the lead as he sped up, now certain of his way. Finally, we stopped in front of an old cherry tree, the leaves withered this late in the year.

"The tree?" I queried.

"He always said it was about peace and cooperation," Sasuke informed me. Well, considering the Shodaime…

He released his chakra in a strange rhythm over a knot in the wood. The grain _twisted_, then revealed a letter pinned to the spot the knot had stood.

Oh kami, that was genjutsu talent. It was a permanent genjutsu anchored to that particular knot in the wood, overlapping in a fractal pattern in three dimensions converging at the center. That created the double benefit of not allowing unauthorized access from and hiding the chakra from dojutsu. The illusion itself was strong enough to withstand ANBU investigation. This masterpiece, at thirteen. Only my overdeveloped chakra sense allowed me to figure out how it worked, and I don't think I could have hacked it ten years from now.

So, Itachi's grand plan consisted of a letter. This was considerably less dramatic then canon. Sasuke stared at it, glanced at me, then placed the letter on the ground where we could read it simultaneously.

_Sasuke,_

_This letter should only appear in the event of a truly drastic catastrophe. As of the moment you find this, I am either dead or as good as dead. There is a man, who calls himself Uchiha Madara, and his mangekyou sharingan possesses the ability to manipulate the minds of others. I doubt he is truly our infamous ancestor, but he is strong enough to make that claim. Should I still be alive in body, I must ask that you grow strong, strong enough to kill me, strong enough to resist Madara. There is a forbidden evolution for the sharingan, called the mangekyou sharingan, that gives one incredible powers, but is activated by killing the one loved most, and results in blindness. Do not attempt to activate unless there is absolutely no other choice. In my final moments, I will finally be free of any mental influence, but until then, I am not the brother you knew but a monster wearing his face. Grow strong, otouto, and free me. I am so proud of you, and will always love you._

_~Itachi_

**Foolish little brother. I hope you are strong enough to be worth some consideration the next time we meet, strong enough to prove my capacity. Enjoy my ****_motivational _****farewell gift. **

**~Uchiha Itachi**

Sasuke had gone frighteningly pale.

"So," I hedged. "Bring this to the Hokage?"

* * *

The Sandaime watched us solemnly, the note laying on his desk.

"I must thank you for bringing this note. However, how did you find it?"

Sasuke miserably replied,

"It's from me and Itachi's message spot."

Seeing the hokage's impatience, I clarified:

"There was a long-lasting genjutsu put over the tree, and only special people could activate it. It was _really_ good; probably it would have given _you_ pause in unraveling it."

Sarutobi-ojiisama nodded, and began to gesture us outside the door, before Sasuke suddenly asked:

"What are you going to do about Itachi-ni?"

The Sandaime sighed.

"If he is a missing-nin, or working for our enemies, especially under mental influence, we cannot afford the other countries to count Uchiha-san as under the jurisdiction of Konoha. He will be given an S-class ranking and a bounty, and our own forces will be warned of this mysterious 'Madara'. However, if you follow the recommendation in the letter, become strong, you might be sent after him. I am sorry, Sasuke-chan, but this is the best I can give you and the innocent people of this villiage."

Sasuke nodded mutely, his face an expression of despair, but still containing embers of determination.

"Bye, Ojii-sama," I called out as we left. "Konohamaru will be living with me a week from now."

* * *

"It's good to see you," Choji offered.

I smiled wanly at him.

"It wasn't the best of breaks from the Academy," I replied.

Ikatsu-sensei called out, "Class is starting, everyone in their seats. Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun, speak with me after class about catching up on work."

"Shogi?" Shikamaru initiated. From him, an unprompted offer of a strategic game translated to, 'you are worth me spending time and effort over, despite the fact that for me this will be a stupidly easy game'. That was another reason we got along so well; there was so much we had in our heads we couldn't easily communicate, for fear of misunderstanding or miscommunication or simple lack of vocabulary.

"I'd love to," I replied thankfully.

We took our seats in the back of the room, Sasuke close to me in a manner now routine. In this position, he could surreptitiously grab me in case the breakdowns that occurred moments of distraction and inactivity; he would fall into a stupor, unable to think or act from overwhelming emotions. Sasuke currently resided on a futon in my bedroom, since he hadn't yet had a night without nightmares.

"Kaa-san invited Sasuke over." Choji informed us.

I glanced at Sasuke. After a week and a half of near-total isolation, Sasuke was eager for some semblance of normality. I didn't know how he'd react to the omnipresent state of mothering Choji's mother functioned. However, Sasuke had reacted surprisingly enthusiastically to the news Konohamaru would be staying with me.

"Yes," Sasuke suddenly replied, after a rather lengthy pause.

Well, that was the other option, the one I had chosen. The view I had embraced after realizing the world, family, life I had been born in was dead to me. _Don't_ close your eyes to the world, cry out that it isn't fair, this does not happen. Rather, recognize that there are other people willing to take care of you, function as your family in return for of effort and love on your part. Choji's mother was willing to mother me, and now Sasuke. Konohamaru was happy to call himself my brother. I myself called the Sandaime 'honored grandfather'.

People love, and are loved, and eventually you choose your family of all the people in the world who are most precious to you.

I wish, sometimes, so selfishly…

* * *

Author's note:

I really do think that there was a good chance of Sasuke being molested and/or sexually abused before he left the academy. He did have extremely advanced skills for his age even before graduating, but he's seven, and it has been ingrained into Konoha-nin heads that you do not attack another Konoha shinobi. And then, a genin team comes to babysit him for a while, and the Kunoichi thinks he's adorable, and one male teammate thinks he's the luckiest little brat, and the other thinks the Uchiha spawn deserves every misfortune.

I am going to start posting various character and situation analyses at the beginning of appropriate chapters, explaining my view of a character and how that explains their reactions to changed events.

Everyone is giving me such nice and wonderful reviews...thank you so, so much, and I am so happy that people like this work.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own the _Naruto_ franchise.

I see Hinata as someone who is naturally very strong, in mind, talent, and spirit. She lasted at least twelve years, without an irreparable breakdown, as the Hyuuga heiress failure. At the age of twelve, she created an ultimate defense jutsu, in some ways superior to the Kaiten. She could be at least an A-rank ninja, like Kakashi, but she is weak in the manner her clan traditionally teaches. After the time skip, she improves faster than Neji, which indicates that if she had put that much dedication into training from the beginning, she would have been nearly as talented as Neji. It is implied that Neji has been obsessively training for years, whereas Hinanta only really got serious after the Chuunin exams. Quite possibly she would be more skilled, with the extra training given to the heir. She just needs to figure out her own style of fighting. Perhaps spend less time admiring Naruto and more time emulating his training philosophies.

* * *

A reduced dimensional structure and process, integrated with a conic spatial overlay, but one fixed focus and one indeterminate focus, keyed to a specific symbol-another seal- but you'd have to include a recalibration function to

"Uzumaki-san."

ensure whatever you initially sealed didn't come out with a distinct resemblance to multicolor spaghetti. Maybe I could derive something from standard equations of ellipses? Hmm, hyperbola maybe,

"Uzumaki-san."

no, you are containing the object, not transferring it. Since one focus is already determined, you'd have to base it on a polar equation. But the question is, how do you lock

"Is she somehow unable to understand me?"

"No, she's just disregarding you."

"Ah."

it to the unset sealing matrix? I wish I'd taken more calculus, they haven't done much with it here. Base it as a referent function with added containment? Store it _between_ time? Actually, that might work-

Foreign, cloying chakra _spiked_ into my system. I jerked away at full speed, falling into a guard position as, responding to dreamlike terror, my own chakra blasted the intrusion into meaninglessness. Then, reality reasserted itself, and I clambered down from the table and picked up the papers strewn from my passage.

"My apologies, Hyuuga-sama. I was quite absorbed." I explained.

"It is fine. I have studied fuinjutsu somewhat myself, and I understand your… dedication." Hinata responded, a faint smile apparent but soon removed to a mask of serenity.

This… was unexpected. Hadn't Hinata been extremely insecure, especially early on in the show? And stuttering. And a huge obsession with Naruto, but I would hardly expect that to carry over. Canon-Hinata drew her strength initially from admiring Naruto, her inspiration, so wouldn't she be even worse, now? Not this serene, controlled hime. What had I changed? Or was this actually an alternate set-up to canon?

"What were you interested in?" I queried. It'd be nice to talk to someone who didn't reduce fuinjutsu down to 'magic calligraphy'.

Hinata waved a hand in dismissal, but returned with:

"What do you know about removing seals?"

My appraisal of Hinata went down; she probably only just understood what a seal represents.

"It depends on the seal, or more precisely, on the manner in which the seal was designed. At my current skill level, I could remove any universal seal."

Seeing Sasuke's interest, and Hinata's almost imperceptible display of confusion, I continued:

"There are two manners in which a seal can be written, and those methods are based on peoples' perception of space time. So, there is the personal method and the universal method. The personal method is, colloquially, 'the language of your soul', and more or less keyed to one person. The universal method is, more or less, 'the language of sentience', and keyed to humanity and other sentient creatures as a whole."

Blank looks. Blank serene look, with a razor edged 'you will continue now, or else' undertone. Kami, this version of Hinata was terrifying. Of course, I could be reading too much into a perfectly innocent look…

"So, one of the more useful disciples of the Rikudō Sennin, in conjunction with quite a lot of nature chakra, devised a sealing art that describes the actual physical objects we can perceive, universal fuinjutsu, instead of our personal understanding of our brains' representations of those objects, personal fuinjutsu."

Yay for subjectivism. I had loved philosophy, in my previous life; ironic, for my current situation… College would have been fun.

"There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods of sealing. As the name implies, anybody can use or make universal seals, but they are rather chakra inefficient, and they can be easily used against you. Also, they are easy to apply to another person: anyone can activate a universal seal, anyone can make a universal seal, anyone can have any old universal seal written on their body and it will function. A significant part of iryo-nin training is studying universal fuinjutsu. However, the language is mostly lost, and although it is unofficial duty for Sennin to rediscover as many words-symbols as possible, it's slow going. Imagine learning a really convoluted dead language, where you don't have any idea of the spoken language, and all of the symbols are ideographic instead of phonetic, and all the meanings are interconnected. And it's not in a line, but a two-dimensional, sometimes three-dimensional matrix."

Sasuke had long since turned back to his treatise on elemental chakra conversion, uninterested from the many-times repeated lecture and his own inability to utilize fuinjutsu. Interestingly, Hinata actually was still paying attention. This was the speech I used to dissuade the fangirls who came to me for a 'love seal', or the boys for 'something really awesome that beats everybody up, just like the Yondaime'. Seriously, I was even getting accredited genin making requests, although they generally used better vocabulary.

"It takes the average beginning fuinjutsu-nin two years to develop their personal style. So, using your personal style, you can make any type of seal, and that seal is only accessible to your soul. For example, you could make your own exploding tag, and it would be much more chakra efficient to activate, and you could easily determine all the specifics of the blast. The limiting factor with personal seals is that they do not affect and are not affected by anybody other than the creator. If I painted my personal exploding tag on your face, it would fade away into your chakra system. There are legends and a few examples today of personal seals by some ancient seal masters that actually did affect other people, but no-one has come close for a hundred years. Personal seals that affect other people are also equally difficult to remove."

Hinata narrowed her eyes.

"Not impossible, though?"

I smiled cheerfully at her.

"Ninety percent of those legendary seal masters were Uzumaki," I informed her. "I hope to be able to emulate them eventually."

"I greatly desire some method of removing a personal seal from another person. Should some valiant fuinjutsu master figure out a certain way to achieve that, the Hyuuga clan would eternally declare their support."

So, in return for doing the nearly impossible, I would be rewarded with nearly inconceivable. It was very, very rare, but an entire clan could declare a debt of honor to a particular individual not of their clan. The family of the current Kazekage, the most recent to such a declaration, pledged their debt more than a hundred years ago in response the sand-based quasi-bloodline that linked them to the Ichibi.

"I shall consider it," I assured Hinata. "It would make a good mastery project."

She smiled visibly, and bowed shallowly.

"I'm certain you shall prevail in time," Hinata promised as she turned and walked away.

"That was interesting," Sasuke noted.

"I thought you stopped paying attention."

"You have a gift for fuinjutsu. You don't need to lord it over the rest of us."

"Says the nine-year-old with two elemental affinities and working on a third."

"I don't deluge people who come to me with information irrelevant to them, that makes me feel superior and the other inferior."

"People should understand the honor that they ask for, the honor they are given."

"It may have been shallow, but they aren't bad people. They are children, Naruto. They don't deserve punishment, even to make them better."

"They asked for a perversion of my art. The only punishment I gave them was explaining what they asked for."

"Hn. We need to go."

* * *

"Thank you very much, shopkeeper-san."

I bowed and took my bag of groceries. The woman behind the counter smiled and offered:

"I'm sure there is a piece of mochi I had left from yesterday. Half price for the age?"

"Yes, thank you. You spoil me, shopkeeper-san."

A suspiciously fresh-looking piece of sakura-mochi was wrapped and handed to me.

"Enjoy, Naruto-chan."

"Thank you very much! Goodbye."

I turned to go, and an old woman browsing the candy section near the counter snorted.

"Bribe the demon, do," she muttered mockingly, clearly louder than she meant to.

Half the people in the store froze and turned, to look at the woman and I. I could also see every shinobi in the store resist the urge to express frustration and exasperation-one chunin did facepalm. I'd never seen someone actually do one before. The nose seemed to present a conundrum.

There was no way out of this; everyone had heard, and it was clearly addressed to me.

"Pardon me, obaa-san? Have I misconducted myself to you?"

She seemed a bit less certain with every eye on her, but prevailed:

"You walk around, spoiled as anything, and spit on the sacrifices made for you."

I tilted my head. "I apologize, obaa-san, but I do not understand. I honor my ancestors, and the ninja who serve this village with my training and loyalty."

She snorted and shook her head.

"Spoiled brat. You should make amends for every life that has gone to yours."

I hesitated, and in my pause one of the more intimidating chunin walked up to the lady, stood in front of her, and announced,

"You are out of line."

He picked her up bodily and set her down again immediately outside the door. She stalked off in a huff, and I looked back at the patrons of the grocery store. A few looked away from my gaze, some smiled and made some reassuring gesture, many watched the chuunin with approval.

I walked out with my groceries and mochi to a susurrus of whispers.

I had wondered…

* * *

Sasuke walked in as I finished unloading my groceries into the cupboards.

"Are you ready? Are you alright?"

I looked up at him, slightly startled.

"Ah… yes. Just an unpleasant encounter."

There were things you realized, from living another perspective. In the show, we saw Naruto at the start of his messiah's journey, his best moments and improvements from there. The 'awful cold staring civilians' saw a little boy completely out of control, insulting everything he was supposed to honor, with enough firepower locked away to wipe the entirety of Hi no Kuni off the map. And manipulable and foolish and immature enough to actually go through with it. How demeaning, to have the venerated position of Hokage claimed by a lazy, disrespectful little brat. How insulting, to have the good for nothing, time bomb jinchūriki look exactly like their savior, the Yondaime. He claims the name Uzumaki, but disrespects the clan's principles, shames the eternal alliance they all swore.

The people here_ liked_ having a talented trainee Uzumaki seal master, a jinchūriki polite and kind and dedicated to becoming a great ninja. A good jinchūriki was excellent for international politicking, an expression of the village's inherent quality. But for many people, it was right that I should be Konoha's weapon, all other considerations second. Without the training to utilize the Kyuubi's chakra, Konoha's main line of defense against an attacking Biju or jinchūriki was null. My pain would go some way to make up for theirs, in the hundreds of shinobi and thousands of civilians killed the night the Kyuubi broke loose.

It wasn't fair, it wasn't right, but it was justified. Canon Naruto hadn't understood his responsibilities, so he hadn't fulfilled them, and was thus despised. Everyone's problem, who no-one can fix.

Sasuke looked at me critically, but accepted my verdict.

"Let's go."

* * *

"You wish to be my students?"

"Not necessarily," Sasuke explained. "As a jounin, you are probably extremely busy, and can't spend all your training time looking after students with such lower skill levels. We would just follow you around on your morning workout. Observe how best to train for taijutsu. If you are willing to give us lessons, they would be greatly appreciated, but only if you so choose."

Maito Gai grinned.

"Yosh! It is good to see youth willing to work hard for skill, and appreciative of instruction. I am willing to let you accompany me as I train, and will give you some taijutsu lessons if I have time. However! There is another academy student I am interested in. Rock Lee, a year ahead of you. Invite him. If you are coming, meet me at training ground thirty-seven at five a.m. I shall see my students buoyed by the fires of youth!"

He left, in a flurry of leaves.

Sasuke and I blinked. That was… overwhelming, and somehow underwhelming at the same time. But, this was the high A-rank taijutsu master of Konoha, who had a reputation of actually liking teaching. Many of the normal jounin considered that part stranger than the 'Fires of Youth'. They could understand misdirection. They couldn't understand an elite jounin, of his own volition, spending his time trying to drum basics and good habits into a bunch of overconfident, underpowered brats.

Gai-sensei was interesting. There was the whole 'youth' insanity, and that was more than half real, but with the barest insight you could see the powerful mind and presence of an elite ninja.

* * *

"Class! An important part of the training here is our mock field mission. Does everyone have their permission slips in? All right."

In our third year of the academy, Umino Iruka had finally made an appearance. He had been more or less just like Ikatsu-sensei, although clearly even more skilled. Unfortunately, he showed no signs of warming up to me as he had canon Naruto. Well, he had bonded with Naruto… something about pranking? And family?

Sure, being reborn as Uzumaki Naruto had advantages in this world of ninjas-hah, 'lucky' to be born as the focus of the storm of Akatsuki and Orochimaru and insane Uchihas. I had ridiculously huge chakra reserves, valuable resources, and connections right from the beginning, if I looked and asked properly. Although I didn't possess canon Naruto's incredible luck, my reincarnation had given me the advantage of a degree of foreknowledge, chakra sensitivity, and some preparation time.

Another aspect of this life was the complete lack of privacy. After all this time, people were not worried, per say, about a defect in my seal. However, you didn't just ignore the only thing keeping an enormous overpowered fox from ravaging your village. It wasn't that I didn't have any time to myself, or that I had somebody tracking my every action. It was just that _everyone_ kept an eye on me. You didn't need ANBU protection when you had every shinobi in town looking out for you. But, nothing screamed 'suspicious' better than the person with known malevolent otherworldly connections writing about important shinobi and events in the future with a completely unknown language. Thus, I found myself forgetting details from the manga, and no way to record them while I still remembered.

The Sandaime had tried to keep my status from the civilians, but it was sacrosanct law among the ninjas that they knew the jinchūriki. A concession from military advantage to keep their soldiers sane-you can't live if you can't even trust the village you swore to protect and cherish. Kushina's status had skirted the line by having the transfer secret, and technically 'nobody asked', but after the Kyuubi attack, it was blaringly obvious Konoha had a new jinchūriki.

I blinked, and snatched the piece of chalk flying at my head out of midair. And now my hand was covered in chalk dust. Joy.

"Are you paying attention, Uzumaki-kun?" Iruka asked.

I bowed my head and murmured,

"My apologies, Iruka-sensei."

"A two-page essay by Thursday about the importance of paying attention during mission debriefings. Everyone alert now? Alright."

Generally, detention was for troublemakers, but the instructors usually assigned a make-up assignment instead for those with bad habits or who knowingly made a mistake. They were training us to survive and be productive soldiers, not be paragons of good behavior.

"Next week, we will be going out on a mock survival mission. You will be split into teams of three. Your objective is to survive three days, eliminate other teams, and on the final day, retrieve a specific information scroll from a random chuunin instructor. At nine p.m. on the last night, you will gather at the same place we entered the forest, we will head back to the academy, and from there you can return home. If you are eliminated before the third night, you will be removed from the arena and spend the remaining time refining your skills under the other instructors. Every class in your year will be participating, so there will be instructors you don't know. This is a major part of your grade, so make sure to do well! The following Monday, you will receive evaluations and advice, and we will spend the rest of the week working on general improvements for other practical exercises."

Interesting. Up till now, we hadn't done much practical application, although theoretical and practical learning was about equal. But enthusiastic nine-year-olds going out to fend for themselves on a mock mission? This was going to be an absolute mess. And a slaughter by the competent ones.

"These are the teams! Team One: Nohara Kaoru, Akame Yuu, Kamizuki Sora. Team Two: Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino. Team Three: Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji. Team Four: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura. Team Five: Tonbu Tsubasa…"

How subtle. But they had grouped us in general level of competence and dedication to ninja life. While Kiba and Ino didn't take the academy very seriously, they excelled in their signature practical studies, trained extensively in actual skills, and actually were competent shinobi of different specializations. On first glance Chouji and Shikamaru weren't very good shinobi, but they were both so insanely talented in a specific area that they could probably take down a chuunin each, and working together with Ino a chunin team. Many of the career-chuunin children were grouped together, too; less dedicated and ridiculously talented than the clan heirs, more serious than the true slackers and no-names. Of course, nobody in the special class was a truly incompetent.

Sakura, though, was still an unknown, only seen as Ino's quiet shadow.

Iruka-sensei wound down, with a final admonishment:

"Remember, there are going to be around forty teams total! They will have skills you don't know. You have the rest of this week to meet with your team members and prepare."

I got up and started walking over to Sakura, Sasuke close behind me. Sakura looked abjectly terrified, even with Ino sitting next to her carefully braiding her hair and murmuring reassurances. As we neared them, Ino glanced up at our incoming presence, and narrowed her eyes. She abruptly tied Sakura's braid before standing up and striding out to intercept us.

"Naruto-chan, Sasuke-kun," Ino cooed. "I just want to let you know, if you make Sakura cry, I will make you cry. If you let Sakura get hurt, I will _destroy _your lives, orchestrate your total humiliation as you lay unmoving in the hospital, string up your entrails for the crows to chew. But I'm sure none of that will be necessary. Please take care of her."

And she sauntered off to harangue Shikamaru and Chouji. Troublesome indeed.

Non-fangirl Ino was awesome. Non-fangirl Sakura was actually rather cute.

I finally walked over to where Sakura was frozen, and smiled and bowed.

"Hello, Sakura-chan. My name is Naruto and this is Sasuke, and I think this will be an excellent team…"

* * *

Author's Note:

We have been shown that Naruto influenced Hinata from a very young age. With this different Naruto, she didn't have anyone to idolize, to think of to give her strength when she despaired. So, in this universe, at age six she asked Hiashi to make Hanabi the heir and allow her to give up on being a ninja. In response, Hiashi told Hinata exactly how much had been sacrificed because of her, and her status as the heir apparent. He manipulated her guilt about the whole Kumo ambassador incident, explained the hopes of the branch house, and told her exactly what would happen to Hanabi should Hinata give up on being Clan Heir that long after Hanabi was born. Hinata came out from the lecture absolutely desperate to become as strong as she possibly can, and determined to protect the entirety of the Hyuuga clan, especially her little sister. The Hinata that appears in this story is still deeply compassionate, desires the approval of family, seeks strength, and wants to help people. It's just that she has three things Canon Hinata didn't until the chuunin exams: focus, drive, and a reason to grow stronger.

I think a significant transition for a self-insert character is the wildly different culture that they... re-grow up in. However, it is extremely annoying when an english writer just shows off with some random word they looked up, so I tried to compromise. Cultural interactions, such as name suffixes, ninja stuff, food, and social customs will have Japanese words, but I'll keep it to really common words that don't have a real translation.

This chapter did _not_ want to be written... and I ended up splitting it into two _again_. I'm still not very happy with it-once I figure out how, I will come back and edit some more.

After the next update, we finally get to canon. Thank you for reading!

Clarification:

Iryo-nin = medic-nin. Sennin = sage. Hi no Kuni = Land of Fire. Hime = closest translation is princess. Phonetic is the sounds of the alphabet. Chinese characters, each symbol a different meaning, are ideographic. You probably all knew this already, but personally my brain sometimes fritzes on common words, such as common...


	7. Chapter 7

Urk... this chapter turned out huge... I would've split it again, but there wasn't a good place.

* * *

I watched on in amusement as Sasuke attempted to develop a plan for capitalizing on Sakura's barely known abilities, while Sakura gradually ensconced herself into a defensive slouch. He was just so… _young_, and _earnest_, and Sakura looked nothing more than a kitten taken away from its mother. A lesser kunoichi woud have been squee-ing by this point.

Finally, I took pity on them, and led them over to the wooded bank of a lake that was part of training ground twenty eight.

"You have good chakra control, right?" I asked.

"Yes…" Sakura muttered.

"Direct chakra to your feet, and then use it to stick your feet to the tree trunk to walk vertically. Like so."

I walked up the tree, then upside down under a branch. This was a high-genin level control exercise and utility maneuver, but I personally found tree-walking easier than leaf-manipulation. My difficulty generally lay in _not_ vaporizing the leaves I tried to first levitate, then slice in half.

Fortunately, my chakra nature was wind, just like canon, but since my chakra control was terrible and I spent most of my time spent on fuinjutsu, mastery was coming slowly. Definitely the affinity would be mastered by the time I graduated the Academy, but then again I was certain Sasuke would have mastered at least four elements by then.

Sakura looked on uncertainly, but gingerly placed her foot against the tree. She monitored the chakra flow for a minute, before placing her other foot slightly higher and beginning to walk. Her chakra control was almost perfect from the beginning, but she slumped and fell a quarter from the top of the tree.

I was still extremely impressed; by the end, she didn't even need to concentrate on her chakra. In five minutes, Sakura had mastered the same exercise that took me a month. It had only taken me a week to stop falling, or rather, blasting myself off the tree, but it had been a month before I could do it without having to focus.

Furthermore, that girl was clearly extremely talented and dedicated in taijutsu, considering the extent of the chakra-reconstruction of her musculature. Horizontal walking was also a heavy-duty core exercise; even with the chakra somewhat mitigating gravity, keeping yourself straight horizontally for more than a few minutes at a time was standard chuunin practice. Sakura had managed to tree-walk for nearly three minutes, and incredible physical feat for a nine-year-old.

The mental component of chakra had very interesting effects; you could literally change the structure of your own body with pure intent. The chakra used by taijutsu masters actually reconstructed their bodies on a cellular level to enable superhuman feats of musculature for a very low, relatively, energy cost.

"That was good," Sasuke took over, as I dropped off the trunk. "The next part is the same concept, executed on water." He exaggeratedly strolled to the middle of the lake. More confidently, Sakura tried water walking to meet him, never falling, although she wobbled a few times. Sasuke watched in impressed surprise, and I quickly joined him.

I smiled as Sakura finally made her way to us, confident enough to run the last ten feet.

"Mastery of this exercise is the ability to fight, either taijutsu or ninjutsu, on any surface without slipping or falling. So, do all of your katas, and then we can spar."

Sasuke was actually a pretty good instructor. I tended to just say, 'do this', and if they complained explain in exhaustive detail about some obscure science.

Sakura looked slightly subdued at this note, and mumbled,

"I don't think I have enough chakra…"

I blinked. Sometimes I forgot that the average academy student _didn't _have an amount of chakra considered chuunin-standard. Come to think, this Sakura had a lot more chakra than canon-Sakura as a genin. Probably came from having good instruction via Ino, and not wasting time with fangirl escapades.

"Endurance training," I interjected.

Sasuke glared at the interruption, but as Sakura started the most recently taught academy style kata, explained:

"You have already almost mastered these utility techniques- water walking is learned at low chuunin level, actually. Since we can use those techniques, and it is very unlikely any other the other students can, we will have a very big advantage in mobility. Not to mention resources, with Naruto's fuinjutsu. The limiting factor is how well we can take advantage of these things. If you can only water walk for thirty minutes maximum before chakra exhaustion, and don't have any special advantage at taijutsu, these abilities are only going to be good for escaping. So what Naruto is recommending is lots of endurance training for both chakra and taijutsu. In a week, you'll probably have doubled your reserves, if you keep this up, and be able to outmaneuver anybody who can't water- or tree-walk…"

* * *

"Asuma-ojisan," I greeted.

"Hello," he responded, slightly annoyed. Probably because of the red-eyed lady next to him.

"Sakura-chan has better chakra control then you do," I announced. Sakura herself, stumbling along with me, was too exhausted to be more than mildly surprised.

"Really? So?" And here I was, insulting him in front of Kurenai. Snicker.

"I want you to write her an admission into iryo-nin training."

Many working shinobi decided to obtain some medical training, so there was a four-hour night class that met every day. However, genin and below had to get a recommendation from a jounin, a requirement normally fulfilled by the jounin-sensei. An academy student being admitted had only one precedent, who had reportedly quickly flunked out.

"Fine, fine. Now leave, brat."

He may be annoyed, but he actually would do it. He knew me well enough to trust my judgment, and jounin-level chakra control at nine wasn't something to be ignored. Sakura needed a better taijutsu style as well, but that needed a dedicated teacher, which she would have to find herself.

As we left, Sakura seemingly found some energy left and tiredly accused me:

"Why did you do that without asking me?"

Right. I knew there was something I was forgetting. Oh well.

"Perfect chakra control is a great capability, but it is hard to utilize properly. You will be a great iryo-nin, with your studying capabilities and chakra control."

Sakura seemed pleased by my words, but still continued:

"But why didn't you ask me first? I spend that time with Ino! And I need some time for studying academy work."

I stared at her bemusedly.

"You will be fine, Sakura-chan. Study until you understand the material, not perfect recitation. And I think Ino would want you to be proud of yourself. Iryo-nin is simply the best way at the moment."

"You… forgot… to ask me, when you decided my future specialization…" she stared at me. "But… thank you for trying to help me."

* * *

"Hello, Ebisu-sensei." I acknowledged the chuunin. "Hokage-ojiisama informed me that you will be tutoring Konohamaru.

Ebisu seemed nervous for some reason, and Sasuke was snickering in the background, while Konohamaru simply watched in confusion. Was something going on?

"I will work with Konohamaru for good basic skills, imperative for success as a ninja," Ebisu-sensei managed haltingly.

"I'm sure Konohamaru will do well under your instruction," I responded politely. "I myself will continue to work with him in my free time, and I will certainly see much improvement."

Sasuke could barely restrain his laughter –just what was so funny?– as I bowed to the honorable teacher and left.

"What was so amusing?" I asked him as we left to train.

He looked at me askance, then burst into a fresh round of laughter. How rude.

"If you don't know, I can't explain it to you," he finally managed to gasp.

Sasuke was usually more logical than that.

* * *

Ino kept _smiling_ at me, as Sakura desperately tried to explain something to her. Keeping our distance, Sasuke and I stood with Shikamaru and Chouji, instructors flitting around us attempting to account for everyone.

"This is going to take awhile," Sasuke sighed. "Non-aggression truce?"

"Alliance until the morning of the third day," Shikamaru modified.

Hmm, I would have expected him to drop out on the second day. Model skirmishing was going to be very annoying, plus getting our own food if we wanted to eat anything beyond ration bars. The ration bars were widely used because they _didn't_ turn into poison if sealed and contained all the nutrients and calories you needed for a meal. Better that it just tasted like poison rather than actually being poison. The time-space refraction of containment sealing did strange things to complex molecules like proteins.

"Everyone into your teams! Follow your normal chuunin instructor to your class' designated entry point into the forest!"

Finally. But… shouldn't that have taken longer? Right. The specifically assigned fake hitai-ate, that we were ordered not to remove. Which was also why we were supposed to only discard them in surrender, either to the surroundings or another team. I guess losing children garner the same reaction in every world.

Iruka-sensei lined us up in fifty-metre intervals, as the forest area we would be using was about four square kilometres for one hundred teams of three hundred students. Unsaid was that this would entail a lot of people trying to make camp at night in the same small area.

The signal blew, and we raced away from our entry point. I took the lead, curving around to intercept our apparent allies' course.

A mile of weaving around later, I gestured us down to the ground of a clearing from the branches- tree climbing is a very functional ability. A few minutes later, Chouji walked out, followed by Ino shoving Shikamaru forward.

"We are going to get ambushed in approximately five minutes, fourteen seconds," I announced.

'Approximate' was the field term for anything action non-regulated. In this case, assuming their rate of travel constant and their intention to engage in a fight, the incoming team would intercept in five minutes, fourteen seconds, although it was unlikel

Shikamaru groaned. "Already? Mendokuse…" Ino kicked him. "Wait until a minute before arrival, and keep us updated about changes. Sasuke, Chouji, show fight. Ino, Sakura, stand off to the side, fiddle with your hair or something, pretend to be useless. I'm above, Naruto's below, we're hiding. If they do not engage or leave for thirty seconds, break out the tags, Naruto. Sasuke, Choji, cover us."

We nodded. Ino took Sakura to the side and quickly explained how to convincingly pretend to be incompetent and useless. Sasuke and Choji choreographed their fight to Shikamaru's intermitted directives. I went through the exploding and storage tags I had brought into the forest.

"Two minutes. Places."

We all went to our assigned posts. Sasuke and Choji started stretching and running through other quick warm-ups.

"A minute. Fifteen seconds then initiate."

My tags weren't true explosive tags-those could, and would kill an unprepared ninja of any rank. These were just blasts of hot air, not unlike my previous world's airbags, which would stun and knock about up to low genin.

Sasuke and Chouji slowly ran at each other and noisily jumped into action. A civilian would have found it entertaining, but any half-trained martial artist, or ninja academy student would notice the low speed, the obvious, predictable blows, the lack of power compared to flash. And noise. You couldn't miss it if you tried.

The three encroaching students barely slowed down, and stopped for all of three seconds. _Reckless_. Then, they crept for Ino, with her obvious clan symbol where Sakura had only an empty circle. _Taking out the distracted but greater threat._

I would have to move earlier than planned to cover Ino, although she had probably already noticed them, with Yamanaka-style sensing. Probably everyone had noticed them by now, even without chakra-based detection; their stealth was terrible, bad even for normal academy.

So, sneaking around to 'assassinate' Ino. I waited until they were all clumped together around a tree for a final discussion, then threw a blunted kunai with a exploding tag fluttering behind at their feet. _They didn't even notice._

And with a whump of displaced air, three young bodies came flying into the clearing, Sasuke and Chouji neatly moving out of the way.

One team down, no serious injuries for either team. Shikamaru activated a flare alerting the chuunin monitoring. In less than a minute, she came via shunshin, and left towing the fallen team without a word.

One team down, out of a hundred.

* * *

"Interception in five minutes," I alerted the group. With a sigh, we moved out _again_ from our search for a place to camp, team three vanishing from sight.

The expected team -_43_- burst out to face us. Sadly, the unimpressive first team we had encountered was actually one of the better ones, such that they were actually possessed of common sense. Most of the –_twenty three, now?_– teams we had encountered had attempted to attack us straight on. Three different groups had honestly expected us to meekly hand over our hitai-ate without resistance. The second team who tried that on us, as we later found out, actually had it work a few times. Only four teams after the first attempted any subtlety or actual ninja maneuvers.

These children weren't shinobi, weren't soldiers. But we were.

"Hand over your hitai-ate, and nobody needs to get hurt," the leader commanded, scoffing at Sakura and I. Not unnaturally, for Sakura and I were girls with flashy, long, hair, and Sasuke was much prettier than intimidating. But a ninja would have looked at our positions, our stances. Our decisions.

Sakura abruptly charged forward and engaged the genin– she was actually more skilled than Sasuke in pure taijutsu. Sasuke flashed through the seals for Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu, knowing from experience Sakura would be able to dodge. I retreated a few steps and carefully threw stones with my explosive air tags-after the first encounter, I didn't destroy my kunai for the incompetent teams. Not that I was very good with projectiles anyway- unfortunately, abysmal aiming transferred reincarnation.

It was over in less than twenty seconds. Sakura leapt up into the trees, Sasuke released his fireball, my tags went off to blast the students away while protecting them from the worst of the fireball. They emerged, soot-stricken, and threw their headbands down. The one with the most remaining chakra sent up the surrender signal, and a chuunin instructor quickly took them away.

"I hope we don't get attacked again," Sakura demurred, as we headed back to team three.

"This is getting ridiculous," Sasuke agreed. "It's almost night. They probably wouldn't even set a sentry-did they pay attention at _all_ in the academy?"

"We've found a spot," Shikamaru announced from the shadows.

"Finally." Sasuke badgered in relief. "It's only, what, seven p.m., and we've been living on sealed rations."

We entered a small barricade of tree trunks and brambles, security assisted slightly by the traps Ino and Chouji were setting up.

Ino looked up at our entrance and strode over. "Sasuke-kun, Sakura, take over traps, and then forage for food. Naruto-chan and Shikamaru-kun will go out hunting immediately."

Good choice. Although overshadowed by Shikamaru, Ino was a good tactician. Sasuke and Sakura could orient themselves to the base, Ino stayed as a sensor, Shikamaru's shadow lock was good for hunting and my chakra sense was good enough to locate animals. Sasuke and Sakura could find edible plants while the meat roasted and the others rested.

I nodded, fixed the position of the base in my mental map, and quietly ran out about a quarter of a kilometre. Kneeling by the base of a wide tree, I closed my eyes and focused on my overpowered chakra sense.

Chakra sensitivity is an amazing thing. I could tell exactly where and how every person in an academy room was situated, and how they were using chakra, without opening my eyes. The coordinates of every bonfire chuunin, candelight student, muffled flickers of animals, and a backround blur of trees and plants, were mapped onto my awareness of the world. I could even identify those familiar to me within a mile radius, strong emotions within ten feet. Chakra sensitivity _also_ meant I had felt exactly how the Kyuubi's chakra had boiled my own system from the inside out, scorched my pathways irreparably.

I would have thought that the ridiculous amounts of chakra I possessed would drown out all other signatures, especially considering that the only reason I could sense chakra in the first place was because of a lifetime's unfamiliarity with it. However, sensing other's chakra was actually a function of your own chakra. That hyper awareness of other chakra was usually inborn as a personal quirk, but with effort and a lot of patience a skilled ninja could develop a sense for chakra– it was an unsaid requirement for jounin.

I had vast amounts of chakra. Your own chakra enables sensing of others' chakra. Putting in a little too much chakra into a technique makes it malfunction. Putting in a thousand times too much chakra into a technique, as long as it wasn't genjutsu or excessively complicated usually created an A- or S-rank technique of the same function.

I love being a chakra monster.

Analysis– there are many small birds in the canopy. Can't reach easily, can't catch, too small. Many small rodents hide in the undergrowth. Can't reach, I'd have to burn the entire forest down to get at them. Small mammal, slightly larger creature up high in a clearing a hundred metres from here. Nearest human presence, five hundred metres, unlikely to interfere.

I got up, carefully applied the chakra encasing on my feet to remove sound and vibration, and moved stealthily to the clearing. There was a rabbit foraging the clover, and two crows. The crows wouldn't be good meat, and too hard to pluck. They were clever, too- I'd go for the rabbit.

Breathing deeply, centering myself, I took aim, and sent a kunai deep into the rabbit's head. The crows screamed and took off, and I went to collect my prize. It was an average summer rabbit-not fat, but not lean and stringy either. A good piece of meat-quite a success for not an hour of hunting. It would have been better if I could have set traps, but with so many kids in the forest I would never have seen my own results.

And then I looked into the glassy, perfect eyes of the dead _bunny_ I had killed, and fought hard not to throw up.

I would've been much happier eating fish, but the streams were too small here. But I had killed it, and I would eat it, and its death would go to some purpose.

It took another half hour before I could hold the rabbit without nausea.

* * *

"This is delicious," I complimented Chouji.

He smiled brightly.

"You brought back good ingredients, and I had the spices," he returned.

Shikamaru had arrived back shortly after me, carrying two pigeons that I helped pluck. Those were easier to prepare, _look_ at, _think about_ than the rabbit, but– we needed substantial protein. Sasuke had somehow discovered a trove of strawberries, tomatoes, and eggplant, while Sakura managed to find more than she could carry of bamboo shoots and yams. Chouji admirably rose to the occasion, and made us a feast of fried vegetables with rice. We even had enough food to last the six of us all tomorrow without needing to forage again.

"Ino-chan? Could I talk to you privately?" I asked quietly. For starters, why does Sakura worship the ground you walk on, and why isn't anyone fangirling Sasuke?

She looked at me calculatingly and nodded, walking away to the entrance of camp.

"What do you want to say?" She asked, after we had settled, and I hadn't yet begun to speak.

How could I put this…?

"You love her." Blunt route, since I my people skills were kind of nil.

Ino sighed. "What's she to you?" she wanted to establish.

"Kitten. Adorable, clearly eventually capable of great things. I feel affectionate towards her and want to help her become as great as she could be. I ask because, well, something's going on with her and you're in the middle."

Ino nodded.

"Did you know… I was never supposed to be a ninja, much less clan heir. When I was five, father asked me if I wanted to be a ninja, and I said no. Surprises you? The Yamanaka know the importance of mental security, unlike a few _other_ clans I could mention. Mother, at this time, was making another baby –they'd been trying for another for a few years. I was so happy, for those three months. And then something went wrong, mother came home after a week of absence, and there was no baby, and Father says there won't ever be one."

Ino closed her eyes and relaxed from the stressful memories.

"I don't know all the particulars, but… for some reason if at all possible, my father's branch of our kekkai genkai should be clan head at all times-mental stress of regulating and leading our particular clan, we are best suited for it. A chakra ability, not leadership or brains ability. So, I don't necessarily have to be a ninja, but it would be better for everyone if I did. And then, it came out that I am a prodigy in the clan arts."

Why are all the ninja with the most potential completely unsuited for ninja life in one way or another? Itachi, Sakura, then Hinata, now Ino… could even make a case for Orochimaru…

"A kitten, like you said- Sakura was someone I could take care of protect, try to repair all the psychological damage that happened with her _idiot_ parents and recruiter, and _insane_ expectations. I made sure that recruiter was fired, actually. Next Tsunade– seriously, Tsunade may have created her own style, but she had an entire elite clan supporting her the entire way. I liked Sakura quite a lot, and _how_ she was _adorable_, and then she turned from kitten, to friend, to imouto."

Ino closed her eyes and her voice took on a strain of anger.

"I _begged_ my parents to teach her as a Yamanaka. She loved me, trusted me so much. But a good ninja is supposed to be independent, strong, driven, isolated. It was good for her, good for me, but everyone disapproved. And that disapproval, all the time, drove her down into even further dependency on me. When we were seven, I thought I could get her to focus on this crush on Sasuke to get her to stand up for herself."

She shuddered. Apparently, this bit wasn't her proudest memory.

"Prodigy I may be, genius I am not. There is a high-chuunin level technique, to make a subconscious suggestion. The difficulty is in the mental aptitude, and determining the amount of chakra necessary-in all cases, an extremely low amount. I thought I would use this on Sakura, set myself up as her rival, and eventually she would grow out of it much healthier mentally. Good thing I didn't end up using it- the calculations I used would have made the entire class, including myself, insane Sasuke fangirls."

We shared a simultaneous look of disgust and horror. I idly wondered what canon Sasuke would have done to Ino, knowing she was the source of his hated fangirls…

"So, I start preparing, and then that massacre happens, and after that Sasuke was dependent on you as Sakura is on me, and to interfere with that would have been _messy_."

Messy to say the least. One person with dependency issues attempting to connect with another person with abandonment issues, especially both as volatile as Sakura and Sasuke, would not have ended well.

Well, that explained a few things. But…

"Why are you telling me all this? I mean, I'm glad you did, but it seems a bit personal…"

Ino smiled sadly. "You are the third person I've ever told. Shikamaru-kun, Chouji-kun. I wouldn't have told you but… Shikamaru said these are going to be the teams when we graduate, and I need to tell someone in her team, and you are a lot more stable than Sasuke-kun."

Ouch. It was definitely a good thing she had told me before canon proper.

"Thank you, Ino-chan."

Ino stared off into the darkness for a minute, then abruptly stood up and stated,

"I'm going to get some sleep. Goodnight!"

* * *

In comparison to the hectic first day, very little happened the second.

"There are a total of nine teams left in the forest," I announced in amazement.

"From a hundred going in?" Sasuke responded in amazement.

"I guess we weren't the only busy ones," Chouji added.

I closed my eyes and focused.

"The other clan heir group –Hinata-sama, Shino-kun, Kiba-kun,– is still going strong. Two more groups from our class—I can't identify them. Four groups not from our class. The last five are not doing very well. All of them have created a base."

"What happens now?" Chouji asked.

"We prepare," Shikamaru stated. "Groups of two, everyone forage for food and supplies. Take some time to survey the forest- we don't know where the chuunin is arriving."

* * *

"No more excursions today," I ordered when we reconvened for a hot lunch. "Hinata-sama's group taking out the other teams now-there goes another one, only two left. But they won't attack a group of six. Be careful tomorrow when engaging-they have control of the environment."

* * *

"I need something more for combat than just taijutsu," Sakura confessed.

"Have you considered genjutsu? I think you'd be good at it, but you need a master to learn how to properly implement it into battle. You should be able to learn the actual chakra techniques on your own, though."

* * *

The third morning dawned bright and clear– optimal fighting conditions. We ate a leisurely breakfast of leftovers, packed our bags and lunch bentos, and left with a friendly goodbye. Sasuke, Sakura and I migrated to a location away from the other two remaining teams, a bit south of the middle of the forest. There we waited, warming up and stretching and getting ready to fight.

Finally, at noon, a chuunin's chakra signature appeared to the north. I signaled, and we raced off. A moment's concentration revealed that Hinata's team was closer to the target, and responded only minutes after us.

A hundred yards to the target, I slowed down, and gestured to apply sound cloaking. Not that it would help much against the Byakugan, kikaichū, or a dog's nose. Ironic, that a technique would function against the chuunin, but not a few academy students. However, sound cloaking, jokingly called Nekoko no Jutsu, was one of the utility techniques that needed to be unthinking habit, preferably before genin.

We appeared in the trees above the designated chuunin, walking on the only path. I didn't recognize him, so 'target' he would remain. And _there_ was Hinata-sama's group, on the ground ready to ambush the target. Change of plans. They didn't engage quite yet– probably wanting to see what we would do. Sasuke gestured for us to retreat, and I took the lead back to team three.

"Why didn't you attack?" Sakura mumbled.

"Team two has the overwhelming advantage in this situation."

"Oh," she replied, not really understanding.

* * *

"So, you want to team up again to intercept Team two once they get the information?" Ino clarified.

"We agree," Shikamaru interjected.

"Lunch first," Chouji demanded.

Very early dinner, actually.

* * *

I really needed to create some sort of long distance communication seal. Base it off the telephone instead of actually teleporting the sound waves? Could work, but focus now.

The chuunin was long gone, indicating team two had already retrieved the scroll, since we were supposed to regroup at nine, and it was already five p.m.

For a group with such incredible tracking abilities, team two didn't have very good stealth. They tried, and were definitely the best of the teams we had seen, but had simply cut a swath directly through the forest towards the entrance. We would be in definite sensing range in about five minutes, although they probably already knew we were here, so for the time being we were randomly moving positions and not releasing information.

_Now._

And time for action. We burst into movement, traveling in a loose pack towards team two's position.

The plan was that I would intercept Shino, and prevent him from supporting his teammates long range, since I regenerated chakra faster than his kikaichu ate. Sakura and Ino, who worked very well together, would tackle Kiba. The most dangerous threat was Hinata, with her deadly Jyuuken, especially as we had only short and midrange combatants. Sasuke, Chouji, and Shikamaru would attempt to contain her, Sasuke the most vital with his powerful katon jutsu.

We burst out of the trees, moved into position-

And it all went wrong. Kiba and his partner mowed into me, and all other considerations stopped.

In the air, can't maneuver- I readjusted my grip on the kunai and brought it between me and my attacker. Kiba had judged our jumps incorrectly, so his feet were easy to knock out of the way as he sailed above me. I rolled and flipped onto my feet at the ground to see Kiba doing the same _much faster_.

_I need some huge advantage for taijutsu. My fuinjutsu would do the trick-if I was fast enough._

And it hit me, as Kiba crouched, grinning in thrill.

"We haven't seen anybody but the lame fakers! You're good! Give me a decent fight!"

I swiped my thumb on the kunai blade, charged the blood drop full of chakra and _intent_, and sent it flying the ground between us. Immediately, a seal grew to encompass the area. So blood was the key. Logical, as blood represented a person's life force, but a little cliché and rather icky.

Kiba charged, the ground beneath us showered up, and I closed my eyes to track him with just chakra.

As I found out, fighting blind was another skill that I technically had an accommodating ability for, but ultimately required a _lot_ more experience to utilize it in a fight. If I couldn't stop and focus, chakra signatures were points on a map. Not very useful for flying limbs.

We both kept repeating the same maneuvers, trying desperately to think up a better tactic, as Kiba intercepted me and I created confusion by throwing projectiles and setting explosives.

And then Hinata came up behind me.

She _tapped_, and my back exploded in an agony of chakra.

I _screamed_, my chakra set off out of control in a wild flare, and the world went black.

* * *

I woke up to a setting sun and a distinct lack of celebration.

"What happened?" I croaked, after finally ascertaining I was lying on forest ground with a pillow of other peoples' clothes, _the day was not over_.

"They predicted our strategy," Ino calmly informed me, in the startled silence.

"Hinata can climb trees, too, and went straight for Sasuke-kun. He tried to evade, but Chouji couldn't intercept fast enough." Sakura eventually elaborated. "I couldn't get to Shino, so I tried to get you to help Sasuke, but since I don't have that much chakra Shino ate it all really quickly and I went down. Ino saw, and…"

"Went ballistic on Shino-san," Shikamaru continued dryly. "He couldn't do anything more, but his bugs were already on us. I was drained quite quickly, so I changed tactics to removing Sakura-chan from the scene. Hinata-sama suddenly breaks off Sasuke, and while he tries to set up his jutsu, gets behind where you were annihilating Kiba. All we see-"

"I barely got him," I interrupted.

"He couldn't touch you, and you kept lighting explosives under his feet. He's _covered_ in burns."

"Hinata-sama gets behind you, and suddenly you start this awful screaming, and faint, and your chakra goes haywire even after you were unconscious. Visible cloud, even." Chouji continued eventually.

Hm. I didn't have any remnant of Jyuuken blockages, but I had less than a quarter my chakra reserve left. Mental trauma remnants of hostile chakra insertion?

"Shino-san's down, but so is Ino-kun. Sasuke-kun drops everything to get at you, and Hinata-sama is surprised, but she just grabs her teammates and leaves. Me and Chouji gather Ino and Sakura, Sasuke can't get at you because of the chakra, so we set up base a little ways away and get you when the light show is over. As you can see, everyone else is up."

I digested this information.

"What time is it?"

"Little after eight. We should get going, if you can move."

* * *

The assembled instructors watched us solemnly.

In an age without Uchiha Itachi, this rendition of the rookie nine would have graduated, at the latest, at nine. The only thing holding back the canon rookie nine was psychological issues; Ino and Sakura's fangirlism, Hinata's insecurity, Naruto's ineptitude, Sasuke's overblown arrogance, Chouji's apparent dependency on a Shikamaru that had never shown his brain, Kiba's desperation for respect, Shino refusal to acknowledge any of his peers.

"Team two is the victor," Iruka-sensei finally announced. "But you have all done well."

Team two might have won, but Hinata was the only in any shape to fight, and clearly tired out.

"I am proud to call you my students. And now, your parents will meet you at the academy."

* * *

A ways back, Sasuke and I stoically watched the other children quietly express relief to be reunited with their parents.

Then Ino grabbed a non-protesting Sakura from coolly disappointed parents, Shikamaru gestured me and Sasuke over, and an unsurprised Nara Yoshino herded the six of us back to her clan compound.

* * *

"I would have expected the joint team to win," Shikaku-sama challenged, over the brain-breaking game of Shogi. I was too tired and stressed out to even make an attempt at holding out for more than five minutes. He had taken it upon himself to get to know, and trounce in strategy games Shikamaru's ragtag group of friends. Especially once Yoshino decided that such adorable and talented orphans clearly needed a mother, and if Shikamaru occasionally made unprompted effort in our presence…

Ino and Sakura quietly relaxed in a corner, Ino calming herself by cleaning Sakura's dirty hair. Sasuke slowly ate the delicious food Chouji had soon brought over, as Shikamaru disparagingly analyzed my poor Shogi performance. Chouji was dead to the world in an ecstasy of excellent food he hadn't had to make.

"Team two was going to win since the mission was designed and the teams decided."

"Oh?"

"When we graduate, Sasuke, Sakura, and I will be a combat specialist team, Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji an information specialist team, and Kiba, Hinata, and Shino a scouting specialist team. They won because they had control over the terrain, and their abilities work well and _instantly_. My team is going to be incredible in combat, but all of our specializations take a long time to develop- we are are simply not ready yet. A similar problem with Ino-Shika-Cho, but compounded as their abilities are combat secondary."

I eyed him for a moment, then took a stab, as I needed to do sooner than later,

"Does my… uniqueness… have something to do with the invisible bunny that lives inside my head?" I asked.

"Bunny?" He repeated.

"It has nine tails, but it _clearly_ it can't be a fox. The Yondaime killed the fox."

"Perhaps a bit," Shikaku acknowledged. "Tell me about this… bunny."

I closed my eyes.

"Strange dreams, strange chakra. A grandiose seal on my stomach, and just a little research reveals this word, _Jinchūriki_…"

"I see," he eventually responded. "Thank you for telling me."

I wish I could tell them about Tobi, but I couldn't actually communicate with the fox. If I blamed information on a witness I couldn't actually access, I wouldn't be able to answer or prove any follow-up questions. "So, what was this fox like? Orange? Red? You aren't sure? Did it say anything about Konoha? That is very meager information for a ninja-in-training. And you don't know anything about how it contacted you?" But I had to say something, it would have been suspicious if I hadn't figured _anything _about the overpowered seal on my stomach.

"Time for bed, everyone," Yoshino finally snapped, jerking me out of my reverie.

We looked at each other, and then stared at Shikamaru.

"Mendokuse," he muttered, resigned. "This way."

We slowly made our way to Shikamaru's rather small room.

"You can stay here, but the bed is mine," he demanded.

Yoshino behind us laughed in realization, and left to fetch the futons she could fit in the room and as many blankets as she possessed. I took the opportunity to secure myself a spot in a free corner, my head away from any potential feet.

"Goodnight," I started off, as Yoshino came in with the first set of bedding.

Goodnight and good luck. Only a few years left now.

* * *

Author's note:

Thanks for reading, even though this thing is more than twice as long as any other chapter.

There is this fanon trend of Sakura being weak and lazy in taijutsu, which I don't really understand. She manages to master an entirely new taijutsu style in three years, as well as become one of the greatest medic-nins in the world. That doesn't happen on zero prior aptitude. Plus, she doesn't have any other special abilities at that point, so her only possible pre-academy specialization is small-weapon taijutsu.

For the first few arcs, Sakura doesn't do anything because all the fights are completely out of her league and she doesn't have any special abilities that will let her win or survive; Naruto is just as under skilled, but he has a thousand times the chakra reserves of anyone else present, a healing factor, and a super powered evil side. When Sakura realizes that she isn't going to get any fights at her level, she swears to do better and takes on three high genin at once. At the beginning of the series, Sakura is an annoying fangirl, but still recognized as the best kunoichi; you don't get that as well as failing all the practical exams. It's just that she's a talented, mildly immature genin when everyone else is Cthulhu.

Just to establish, they are nine. They haven't even heard of puberty. Err... no pairings at all until shippuden, and since I fail at being romantic...

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto consider themselves children, and don't really consider most of the rookie nine children. None of them are adults yet, and they don't consider themselves to be, but they aren't allowed to be children. Not even Sakura.

I love my reviews. Thanks, so much, to everyone who has given me feedback on this work.


	8. Chapter 8

"Before we start, let me take a moment to say a few words. This is the final test before you become genin. Pass at least two of the three sections and achieve a combined score of over two hundred points, and you have passed and will receive your hitai-ate."

Iruka-sensei took a deep breath.

"But you all know that. Let me say now… I have full confidence all of you will pass. You will walk out of here tonight as licensed genin. Never forget your roots and debt to Konoha… but don't let that drown you. And don't forget your basics, either. Starting tomorrow, _we_ are the proud shinobi of our home Konohagakure no Sato."

"And now… start."

We all flipped over our test papers and began writing.

Aside from the last five pages, the much lauded 'final' was extremely easy. Name five shinobi rules (professional conduct), three most common uses of fuinjutsu (cargo, transportation, chemical reactions), purpose of illusions (distract, subvert resources), methods of defeating and their respective problems (flaring your chakra broke the taijutsu boost), elemental chakra wheel (and yet they didn't explain why electricity beat ground, despite questions), current politics (who _doesn't _know that Konoha acts smugly superior to Iwa, who hates us vehemently from the Yondaime), harder current politics (who _cares_ who changed the tone of relations between Kiri and Suna).

And then you reached the final section, on tactical response.

_A retrieval mission becomes suddenly derails, and you are targeted by a squad of enemy nin of unknown affiliation. A Kumogakure missing nin with a rare kekkai genkai allies themselves with you, saving your life in the process. Hovever, the nin is hostile towards future reinforcements._

So, in addition to a completely unrealistic scenario, a psychological survey.

I could not _wait_ to finish this test.

* * *

Akame Yuu and I bowed off, then shifted into our opening stances.

Mizuki-sensei brought his arm down.

"Begin!"

I leapt towards Yuu's side, easily dodging the roundhouse hammer, and grabbed the extended arm and hooked his leg. Yuu landed on his back with a whump, and I took the opportunity to pin him for the required five seconds.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" Mizuki-sensei announced.

"Good job," I congratulated Yuu. "That backhand would've gotten me if I hadn't been low for the sweep."

"Slow _down_," Yuu complained.

Sasuke was much more skilled at taijutsu than me, and always would be comparatively, but I could do chakra-intensive speed training all day. By increasing your chakra flow rate and concentrating it densely, you made moving difficult, increasing both your physical conditioning and muscular ability to process chakra. The technique was by far most effective during physical conditioning and taijutsu training, but simply having it active was a significant boost.

* * *

"Kawarimi?" Iruka-sensei directed.

I flipped through the seals, easily replacing myself across the room.

The jutsu worked by creating a chakra simulacrum with an attractor matrix, so when you disturbed your chakra, your body snapped to the location. Experienced ninja substituted an basic bunshin –using anything above E-rank destabilized both jutsu– as an extra-use chakra scramble, but I possessed neither an appropriate technique nor the control necessary.

Furthermore, kawarimi no jutsu could be made much easier using a base for the construct, – the iconic log – but I had been forced to forego that option after the log had exploded. To many students' hilarity, it had taken me a month longer than anyone else to master the jutsu to Iruka's requirements.

"Henge?" Iruka-sensei prompted.

The normal Henge created a shell of chakra projecting a different appearance. Infiltration-specialist henge moulded the body inside to fit the appearance. As well as requiring much more chakra, this version demanded extreme skill applying chakra properly to create the right effects.

Again, I had been forced to take additional time to study a more advanced version. Having ludicrously large chakra reserves made life much easier at times, and much more difficult at others. I had perfected this two weeks ago in a desperate late night session, with Sasuke alternatively helping and mocking.

"So, bunshin... no, you applied for a substitute of higher rank, because of... permanent chakra disability!"

Mizuki-sensei cut in over my reproachful look, "Tactile chakra desensitization." At our questioning glances, he amended, "It's not exactly subtle, and I had a friend who developed it. Seriously, extreme skill with chakra manipulation because you don't have an automatic nerve protest to chakra transfer, but no reactionary ability..."

"Shunshin," I cut into Iruka-sensei's incredulity.

Mark a point... flood the body with chakra, and _shift._ Even though shunshin was a common utility technique, it required _extreme_ amounts of chakra muscle reconstruction, such that it was normally taught at chuunin rank.

Iruka-sensei nodded in approval, grabbed a hitai-ate and ceremonially handed it to me.

"Congratulations. You are now a shinobi of Konohagakure. Work hard and bring honour to the village. And remember to get your paperwork in by the end of the week."

After twelve years of unemployment, I was now a productive member of society, even if I had resorted to the military. Yay.

* * *

"Uzumaki-kun, just a moment." Mizuki-sensei called. I turned around, wondering.

There had been something at graduation, hadn't there? With Iruka-sensei. But when had Canon Naruto learned kage bunshin? He used it the entire series, but I didn't inkling how to get at it short of sneaking into the tower and stealing the forbidden scroll. My stealth abilities weren't _that_ good.

"Come with me for a moment. You know what, you probably need this too, Uchiha-kun. There's this sushi restaurant- I'll pay half."

* * *

"Your lives are going to suck," Mizuki-sensei stated without candor. "Because you are both good, going to get _really_ good. And you don't fit Konoha's poster."

He shuddered.

"Me 'n Iruka... we go back a long way. Iruka-chan was always the golden boy, and I was always the hard one. And you know what? Iruka got every promotion, every recommendation. But I was the one who protected him the entire way."

A glower momentarily darkened his face.

"Konoha is built on rough folk paving the way and hiding the dirt from our oh so _holy_ leaders."

Interesting philosophy… but why was Mizuki-sensei telling us this? And where did _he_ get it from?

"It's awful. It's demeaning. And it's worth it, the city's worth it, the golden boys are worth it. Because you see, eventually, their faces lighting up in complete truth that they have made the world better. And they have."

Mizuki-sensei grinned viciously.

"You'd learn some of this eventually. But I got the full story a few weeks ago, when I captured a missing-nin recruiter who thought I'd go traitor."

"Why _aren't_ you bitter?" I asked. Canon graduation must have had something to do with Mizuki, although I still couldn't remember.

"You remember how I transferred to assistant teacher this year? After a mission went bad. I _was_ frustrated. And I saw a class _full_ of students who would never be given what they are entitled to. It's a new perspective when you aren't the only one shafted all the time."

Mizuki-sensei put down his payment and prepared to leave.

"The sandaime thought you especially, Naruto, ought to know."

Well. Wasn't that a nice piece of information.

* * *

"Congratulations to all of you, new genin of Konoha. These are the assigned teams: Team one. Akame Yuu, Kamizuki Sora, Tonbu Tsubasa. Jounin sensei Hamaki Mimura…"

In contrast to the usual atmosphere of boredom and frustration, everyone in the class now carried with them an air of professionalism. It was fascinating, how being respected encouraged people to act in a manner they considered respect-worthy.

"Team seven. Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto. Jounin sensei Hatake Kakashi."

Sasuke didn't sigh in relief anymore, but he did smile slightly. It was a good team- different, valuable specialties, none of us unprofessional or likely to be disruptive. Of course, in political terms, this team must be a nightmare – three prodigies, two highly visible figures – but apparently, sheer military potential trumped internal societal competition.

"Team eight. Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba. Jounin sensei Yuuhi-"

"Come on!" Kiba yelled. "Seriously? I'm with the emo duo? Ice hime and silent bug guy?"

Although they didn't vocalize about it, neither of his prospective teammates looked too happy about their future comrade either.

Iruka-sensei rubbed his forehead.

"These are the assigned teams! No complaining! If you are still unhappy within your placement after a year, you may request a transfer, but either take your team or leave your hitai-ate. As I was saying, Jounin sensei Yuuhi Kurenai. Team nine…"

Kiba grumbled, but receded.

"Any surprises?" I surreptitiously asked Shikamaru.

"There was a chance they would take Sakura-san off to maintain a one-kunoichi traditional limit. It's not required, but precedent says two male one female tends to create the best personality balance."

"Team ten. Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji. Jounin sensei Sarutobi Asuma. That will be all. Your jounin sensei will be by shortly to pick you up."

"Checkmate," I heard Sakura call for the fourth time.

I looked up from my designs for a knockout seal. Unfortunately, the existing 'instant-unconsciousness' seals only worked on civilians. The current method released a burst of sleep-inducing chakra, overpowering the target's through a period of five seconds; much too long and easy to dispel. My projected version would lock up the muscles of the target, bypassing chakra resistance techniques and allowing ease of more mundane knockout methods.

"Have you considered challenging Shikamaru-kun?" Sasuke queried.

"I would like to, but… I don't want to disturb him and I'm busy in the afternoons."

As in, despite the initial negative reception to Sakura taking an adult class, she quickly became known as a prodigy, completing the written portion in three years rather than the usual five. She had just started the residency equivalent for medic nin– a practical experience course dealing with applying book knowledge and dummy-honed techniques to actual people.

Sasuke sighed and pushed away the board in frustration.

"How long have we been waiting?"

"Two hours, forty-three minutes."

"Err… maybe he got stuck in traffic?" Sasuke and I _looked_ Sakura.

For a jounin, especially with a mastery of shunshin, traffic congestion did not exist.

And – _a blaze of chakra outside the door _– Hatake Kakashi walked in the door. Hmm, I would've thought Kakashi would've chosen dog or wolf mask, not squirrel.

We looked back at Kakashi-sensei's single eye warily. After a few seconds, he chose to break our quiet analyzing, and the eye curved up cheerfully.

"My first impression: you're boring. Meet me on the roof in five minutes." And he disappeared.

Boring? Really? Would he have preferred a prank?

* * *

On the roof, we once again made a silent tableau. For the second time, Kakashi-sensei was forced to break the stalemate.

"I actually have a quiet potential team this time? You usually get at least _one_ loudmouth."

No response. It was a good point, after all- Kakashi-sensei had just described forty percent of our graduating class.

Somewhat put off by our refusal to follow through his planned act, Kakashi-sensei forged ahead.

"Alright, so… let's get to know each other."

Silence. I could see this would be an exquisitely entertaining team.

Taking pity on the man, I finally requested:

"Please explain."

"Name, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies… you first, redhead."

Well.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like fūton jutsu, fuinjutsu, and people both rational and intelligent. I dislike idiots, stupid orders, and people who try to take over various countries and or the world without a viable economy and healthcare plan. My dream is for everyone I care about to live to a reasonably old age. My hobbies are calligraphy and researching new applications of fuinjutsu. Sasuke."

"I am Uchiha Sasuke. My likes are ninjutsu and taijutsu. My dislikes are people who try to take advantage of me either for my bloodline, monetary fortune, or future political power. My dream is to become an uncle. Failing that, I want to become a great ninja and only die of old age. My hobbies are developing elemental affinities and learning new jutsu. Sakura-san."

Sakura jolted.

"Umno… my name is Haruno Sakura, and I like Ino, and dislike… Kiba-san. My dream for the future, is… to make Ino proud and repay her. My hobbies are ikebana and making herbal medicine. Sensei? Do your introduction?"

Kakashi-sensei sniffed.

"Me? Ah. My name is Hatake Kakashi-sensei. I have no desire to tell you about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future? Hmm… Well, I have lots of hobbies."

Sakura subtly went alert. As she was the least experienced ninja there, everyone noticed.

"Alright!"

Kakashi-sensei clapped his hands.

"Tomorrow we will meet at the memorial stone in training ground three. Any questions?"

"What kind of duty should we prepare for?" Sasuke verified.

Kakashi-sensei paused, then chuckled ominously.

"Survival training, just the four of us," he states. "But– oh, how should I break the news to such cute and innocent little genin– " he broke off again to snicker.

Not unexpectedly, Sasuke bristled at being referred to as 'cute' and 'little', while I grew visibly annoyed at his blatant intimidation and delaying tactics. Sakura just looked nervous.

Finally, Kakashi-sensei sadistically deigned to inform us:

"You aren't genin yet, the academy test was just to weed out the hopeless cases. You still have to pass another test- _my_ test. And there's a sixty six percent failure rate, so you will likely have to go back to the academy."

Oh, right- the bell test. I completely forgotten about that. As well.

Come to think, I had been forgetting a lot of things about the future; after all, as a jinchūriki I was closely monitored for inexplicable behavior as a sign of influence from the biju. Nothing screamed suspicious like writing down information in a code and occasionally checking it but not allowing anyone else at it.

And- interesting, there's a genjutsu effect, too, for fear and anxiety. Well, there used to be. This genjutsu intolerance was going to get annoying.

But why is _Kakashi-sensei_ annoyed and puzzled?

"Has someone been leaking information again? It's supposed to be an information security test for genin not to tell younger students."

And isn't _that_ an interesting tidbit.

Oh, right. I'm unconcerned since I know the purpose of the test, Sasuke's confident as 'Rookie of the Year' and the fact that _Gai-sensei_ thought we were ready for genin, and Sakura is top kunoichi working in a team with the two most overpowered academy graduates in the history of Konoha. For some strange reason, citizens got a bit leery of early graduation after Itachi reportedly went insane. Something about the mental destabilization of inadequate childhood… or maybe it was inadequate destitution of childish mentality… I hate acronyms.

"Hmmph," Kakashi-sensei snorted. "Since I'm being so generous for such ungrateful brats, I'll give you a final hint. Don't eat breakfast, if you don't want to throw it up straight after. Be there at six in the morning."

And he sunshined away.

For such a legendary ninja, that hadn't been the most impressive introduction.

* * *

Sasuke stared numbly at the spot Kakashi-sensei had occupied, face blank and stoic against disappointment. Surprisingly, Sakura, of us the most respectful of rank and achievement was also looking less than pleased about our new potential sensei.

"Err… I don't think you should listen to him, Naruto-chan, Sasuke-kun…" Sakura caught our attention.

"I, ah, think, he might be … imposter."

Sakura closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to steel herself. When she continued, her voice was flat and unemotional, conveying information exactly.

"He came several _hours_ late, which both highly unprofessional and made it impossible to verify his identity. Furthermore, he gave bad advice – bad _medical _advice – as a teacher, we need to be able to trust him implicitly, especially in regard to our health. Finally, he refused to give out any personal information we could use to verify his identity."

Hm. I was relatively certain that was Kakashi-sensei; the introduction actually did fit with his past and personality, intended to reveal nothing but giving any insightful listener very useful information.

But he annoyed me, that genjutsu could conceivably be a distractor for a henge, and my proof depended on seeing the future via comic books, so why not?

"Let's see the Hokage."

* * *

"What did Sandaime-sama find so funny?" Sakura asked.

"Because apparently, Kakashi-san is very annoying in general, and this is probably going to go round the rumor mill until he can't ever forget it. Because how often do new genin try to get an elite jounin arrested because he failed every academy guideline?" Theorized Sasuke.

Well, although the introduction pretty much went against every protocol taught in the academy, it actually did say quite a lot about Kakashi-sensei to an insightful visitor.

The only information he gave out freely was his name- which, considering the reluctance of everything else, indicated the presence of a social or political image disparate from his true identity. Refusing to tell us his preferences, traditional methods of connecting with another person, went along with disliking social bonds. Furthermore, the annoying tendencies drew attention to the created persona and away from the real person behind it.

And that was all a perfectly acceptable coping mechanism, for a ninja. Spiritual chakra derived strength from force of character and individuality, so most jounin, all elite jounin, tended towards eccentricity. As long as they weren't on the edge of snapping and destroying the latest client and whatever city they happened to be in at the time, any and all coping mechanisms were tolerated.

But the other two comments were unacceptable. He didn't think about the future- no dream, no plan, no hope. And a person without hope was a very dangerous individual. Kakashi had _something_ driving him forward, but the results would not be pretty if it was ever threatened. The excess of hobbies indicated both an attempt to not think about something pressing on his mind, and the lack of serious involvement with any of them meant inability in any function to move forward.

Now, how to broach the subject with my teammates… or, on second thought, not. Too much effort.

* * *

"So, my adorable potential students!"

"You're late, _again_," Sasuke hissed.

Funny how _Sasuke_ was the most vocal of the new 'team seven'.

"Am I? Well, you see, there was this little inquiry from the Hokage, and it turned out that I needed to file some paperwork… what cute and innocent faces! But I'm _certain_ that it was all a _silly_ mistake…"

Sakura really needed to work on concealing her reactions.

"But enough about that. I'm sure you want to know your test?"

Kakashi-sensei smiled pleasantly, two bells appearing in his hand.

"Here are two bells. Your task is to take these from me before noon. Those who cannot get a bell by noon… get no lunch. I'll not only tie you to one of those stumps, but I'll eat right in front of you. You only need to get one bell. And... the person who doesn't get a bell fails."

A threat and a reward. Many more genin would have passed the test if he had only included one or the other.

"There are only two bells. Therefore, only two of us can pass."

Thank you, Sasuke, especially for the way you are clearly including myself but not Sakura.

"Or possibly one or even none. Someone will definitely be tied to a stump. Also, you won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill. You can even use your shurikens!"

Really? Intent to kill? If I, or pretty much anyone of the rookie nine, truly wanted anyone dead, we wouldn't bother with some flashy battle. Except Kiba. And I would make a flashy fuinjutsu trap. And Hinata would make him utterly helpless before killing him in full visibility. And Ino would make his life such a living hell he would consider murder a mercy. And… we really were a flashy graduating class.

"You ready? … Now!"

I grabbed Sakura and Sasuke before they could disappear from the clearing.

"Sakura, if you help us you will be holding one of the bells we get. Listen! Occupy him with taijutsu, if you see a chance use every trick you can. Sasuke, ninjutsu. I'm support, keep an eye for attacks from the back. If you need supplies, signal me. Go!"

Responding to the authoritative tone and presence of a plan, Sakura unthinkingly jumped to engage Kakashi-sensei. Less surprised, Sasuke glanced strangely at my sincere statement to Sakura, but didn't hesitate to start running through handseals.

I leapt to a tree branch and immediately started throwing kunai attached to nonlethal explosive tags. Kakashi-sensei wouldn't be injured by the real ones, but Sakura _would_ and I couldn't count on Kakashi-sensei protecting her.

Finally, I spared my special kunai to add a fūton: daitoppa to Sasuke's fireball in the moment Sakura leapt clear.

A _wall _of explosive fire enveloped the clearing.

Kakashi-sensei's chakra _wavered_, and disappeared from the ridiculously large blast.

But a tinkling bell, laced with chakra, remained, burned free of its tether.

Sasuke wasted no time destroying the construct with a shuriken – good thing, since a metre-radius pit enveloped the ground where it lay.

"Hmmm…" a murmur voiced behind me and I instinctively dropped down – leaving Sasuke exposed, his attention focused on the jutsu.

"Lesson one: Taijutsu."

Moving at least twice as fast as he had when fighting Sakura, Kakashi-sensei went after Sasuke, who barely had time to get his hands out of a seal before Kakashi-sensei was on him.

"Lesson two: Ninjutsu."

_Kakashi-sensei knew Kagebunshin._

Ninjutsu – get out of range – and a huge fire dragon erupted from the clone's mouth.

I desperately cut my forearm and flung the blood droplets to the dragon, creating fourteen basic fire containment seals– weak individually, only really enough to put out a fireplace, but I could create a lot at the same time, and they formed _fast_.

The remaining flame dragon destabilized and collapsed into a flurry of superheated soot and ash.

"Lesson three: Genjutsu…" I heard blearily beyond the roar of the wind I ineffectually summoned to blow away the soot. Ash was _bad_; it would get in my lungs and stick to my skin, whereas my chakra could protect me from a mere burst of flame.

But still, a _dragon_ technique against a new genin? Those were two ranks above the Gōkakyū technique, not for power, but that they tracked an opponent. After all, there If not for weakening it with a _gargantuan_ number of _very_ fast sealwork, I would be roasted into ashes, unable to escape. Which was, food for thought, master fuinjutsu abilities and jounin-level application.

I cast my chakra senses outward, focused on dispelling the storm and- _what the_- the soot storm was a freaking _mile_ across! And Sasuke was still going, and _strong_, in the taijutsu bout, in a hazardous environment and barely able to breathe.

Finally, the soot cooled enough for me to make my way through to Sakura and a Kakashi-sensei clone. What had happened to mine? Backlash from the destabilized jutsu?

Sakura was desperately fighting the genjutsu, from the activity of her chakra. So…

Closing my useless eyes, I carefully made my way to the Kakashi-sensei clone Sakura had distracted.

_Careful_ – and he didn't react to my clumsy pickpocketing his one bell. _Now to finish this debacle._

"_What? Naruto-chan, Sasuke-kun? I can't see anything!_" Sakura woke up with a startled gasp, voice distorted by the opaque veil of smoke.

"_Sakura-chan, this is Naruto. I will take your hand, and we will go get Sasuke. Are you alright_?"

"_Ye-yes, thank you_," a shaky voice answered back. "_The genjutsu kept changing for whatever I was thinking about…_"

Kakashi-sensei was pushed so hard in a genjutsu match he had to personally modify to her resistance? This girl had potential. Speaking of which, perhaps I should look in on her connection to the Senju clan…

I grabbed her hand and directed her to the taijutsu match, eerily loud in the absence of sight. With two more participants, there was no difficulty dispatching the –_water clone?_– badgering Sasuke, although unfortunately it did not possess the other bell.

"_What happened, Naruto? I saw Kakashi-sensei attack you with a fire jutsu, and it suddenly exploded into this huge soot storm. What was with all of the soot, anyway? Not like the fire dragon was burning anything_…"

And with a flicker of Kakashi-sensei's chakra, the free-blowing soot faded away. All of it, in a ripple effect from the center of the lumpy circle, except for the gunk on our skin and faces. So… we were still at risk for the ash we breathed in… and the other stuff, clearly material, just faded into chakra? Research time! … mmmm, research…

"You have one bell," Kakashi-sensei brandished the alarm clock, showing the time as a few minutes past noon.

"Who passes?"

I held up the single bell.

"We all do. 'You' can be either second person singular or second person plural. 'We', team seven, have a bell."

Kakashi-sensei narrowed his eyes.

"However, only one person has held the bell. Therefore, you were working as a single person, not a team. Unacceptable."

I sighed, and passed the bell through my teammate's hands, making sure to release it for a few seconds.

"Second semantic issue. All of us have 'gotten' the bell. You did not specify that we individually required to have it in our possession."

Kakashi-sensei was starting to look extremely irritated.

"As Sasuke-kun decided to explain earlier, the person who holds the bell is the one to pass and become a genin. Unless something ridiculous happened to make me change my mind."

Another hint, another refusal. Guess I'd have jump through all the hoops.

"Fine. Sakura-chan, Sasuke? My recommendation is that Sasuke takes the bell. Sorry, Sakura-chan, but Sasuke is the one who won't be able to progress in his ninja training without a dedicated instructor. I can continue studying seals, become a fuinjutsu master with minimal shinobi skills- I won't be in want of work. You can continue with your medical training, eventually become a field medic, and if you're a good enough medic and have enough potential as a ninja, ANBU will grab you for shinobi retraining. Sasuke specializes in traditional shinobi skills, so he needs an instructor and a pass to work as a shinobi."

Sakura hesitated for a few moments, eyes glancing back and forth, but reluctantly handed the bell over to Sasuke.

Who pushed it back to her. Yes! Teamwork and sacrifice! Now, if only Kakashi-sensei decided to stop being such a little-

"I can get better instruction than a shinobi so unobservant he didn't notice our skill levels. Going to the genin corps, I can just learn on the job, train, and hire instruction. You don't have the money, Saku-"

"All three of you pass!"

We all turned and glared at Kakashi-sensei.

"Don't you want me to explain? I feel so taken advantage of. Really hurts my feelings, you know."

* * *

"You guys are the first. None of the others bothered to think for themselves… or for others. Just morons… who would do whatever I told them…" Kakashi-sensei spoke, turned towards the memorial stone.

"So, exposing yourself as giving bad advice and being an antagonistic figure was a hint towards the purpose of the test, rather than the more standard and less controversial 'obeying a superior's orders?"

The bad advice about eating revealed Kakashi's orders as malevolent and disguising a higher purpose, and thus his authority likewise less than worthwhile. Furthermore, his offensive behavior while setting up the test would normally cause a team to unite in opposition to an outside threat. All that, to make us think about his orders, more to the point _not trust their intention_, and try to avoid their spirit rather then their letters.

For a military society to survive, such super-powered soldiers as shinobi absolutely needed to be loyal and dependable. You die when you can't trust the backbone of your civilization and prosperity anymore… The true difficulty of the Kakashi's test resided in the fact that 'following orders' was the paramount ideology in the academy. Logically, new genin would be tested with 'following orders we don't understand' rather then 'the teacher is the enemy'.

Which, actually, Kakashi-sensei didn't seem to realize…

Kakashi-sensei, startled, looked closely at me.

"You thinking about aiming for Hokage?"

"_No_," I shuddered. "Too much paperwork."

I wanted the job to go to Sakura-chan, she'd be good at administration and diplomacy. Sasuke and I could be her advisors and enforcers.

"So, merely trying for 'sannin'?"

We would _have_ to become S-rank legends to survive until seventeen.

"Yes." Sasuke smirked.

Kakashi-sensei gave us his first genuine smile.

"Do you know how the sannin became so great? Teamwork, and the will of fire."

Once again, Kakashi-sensei grew deadly serious and sincere.

"The three of you working together got one of the bells. Do you think there was any chance of getting the bells on your own?"

Like three genin would be able to get a bell from Sharingan Kakashi if he didn't want us to. But actually… his skills had been high chuunin throughout the fight. To prove his point?

"But there are only two bells… and the children fight, compete, sabotage amongst themselves. And a real mission would fail. The purpose is to see whether you can forget about your own interest and successfully work together under these designed circumstances… which I must say, Naruto-kun, you completely ruined my test."

I had been trying to cheat the test, not going after the true meaning behind it… which actually said some worrying things about my pride, and disenfranchisement with Konoha ideals. Eh, I could control it in a real situation.

"Duty to Konoha… is the duty of the team. Of course superior individual ability is important to a ninja, but teamwork is more than merely ninjas added together. Individual play that disrupts the team can put your comrades in danger, and even get you killed. For example…"

Kakashi-sensei blurred and teleported behind me. _A kunai rested, cold, poking into the back of my neck_. It took all of my self-control not to flinch or struggle wildly at the intrusion of my personal space.

"Sakura! Kill Sasuke! Or Naruto dies!"

"WHAT?"

Isn't that supposed to be Sakura's line?

And Kakashi-sensei stepped back and holstered the kunai. Come to think, Kakashi-sensei was one of the few main characters that really used basic ninja tools in real fights…

"You see? If a hostage is taken, you will have tough choices and then die. You will be risking your lives in these duties."

Sakura. Risk Sasuke in an infiltration mission to where I have been imprisoned with valuable information. _Konoha is worth more than your life. The Kyuubi is more important than your life._

"This is the memorial stone. The names of heroes are engraved here… the ones who died for Konoha. And my best friend's name is engraved here…"

At least Obito didn't survive to see what a mess the future he died for will become… small mercy.

"A ninja must see underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash… but those who don't take care of their comrades are _lower_ than trash."

Is this statement made in the utilitarian sense, or regarding virtue ethics?

"That ends the training. All of you pass! Starting tomorrow, Team 7 will begin its duties!"

* * *

"Nee-chan!" shouted Konohamaru with a flying tackle hug.

And, unusually, immediately released me.

"You're all _icky_," he wrinkled his nose. "What, was your first mission rolling around in fireplaces?"

I sighed.

"Blame Kakashi-sensei. He's the ridiculously careless and irresponsible one. _You _are lucky I'm not here flambéed."

"Still, Ojii-chan wants to see you immediately."

Why?

"I'm going," I agree. "Need any help with homework later?"

"No! 'Cause I've got it all done! And you _promised_ you would teach me a cool jutsu if I got all my homework done and top scores on the test, which I did!"

"So I did," I agree. "Now let me see the Hokage… and take a shower."

"Bye," Konohamaru's voice trailed behind me as left for the tower.

Hmmm. What could I teach him? Henge? Children liked alibis, didn't they?

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Ojii-sama?"

The Sandaime looked at me sadly, his hands cradling his crystal ball.

"Ah, Naruto-chan. Congratulations on becoming genin, not to mention passing Kakashi-san's test."

"It was rather irritating. But I suspect you need something?"

The old man straightened, his face going blank, professional.

"I trust you have noticed the rather large seal placed on you?"

You would've thought it would be harder to miss, actually. But really, how often does someone go around chakra training with their shirt off? Not to mention that it was rather awkward to examine without a mirror.

"I have."

"Do you have any idea what it represents?"

More than you do, old man.

"The way Uzumaki Mito-sama defeated the Shodaime's… second opponent at Shūmatsu no Tani?"

The Sandaime seemed to deflate. A guilty subject for him? Why?

"Yes. A biju cannot be permanently killed, so the Yondaime sealed the kyuubi into you at birth. How did you figure it out?"

"I wasn't entirely certain, but it was pretty obvious once you know that my _– condition –_ exists. The huge seal was a big hint, and 'demon' came up rather often… And I seem to have a lot of minor associations with the day the Kyuubi attacked. Also, Shikamaru let me use the Nara library."

And the war histories don't use euphemisms. There is a reason jinchūriki are considered monsters. Corrosive chakra, immune to fatigue, most of them special abilities, biju-damas… and the only ones who could fight them are another, capable jinchūriki, or a heavy-hitter S-rank ninja. And then they came back the next day, biju as good as new, and the container decidedly _not_.

"Do you understand the responsibility that entails?"

To be less human than ninja, less ninja than weapon.

"Yes."

"Then… you may go. And… know you may talk to me at any time…"

"Thank you… goodbye…"

Why? What had I done? What did I do in my previous life? For power? Status? What was that called _respect_ for those less than human? I didn't _want _to kill people, didn't _want_ to have to be the staple frontline soldier! I didn't want to lose my empathy, my _humanity_! I don't want to _have_ to be a ninja!

I paused, and took a deep breath.

I needed to stop whining.

* * *

Author's notes:

Shūmatsu no Tani – Valley of the End

Yes, Sasuke's dream is to be an uncle. As in, take in Itachi's kid. It seems a bit OOC, but it is actually the simplest expression of a lot of Sasuke's wishes: for Itachi to be sane and with him again, not to have to deal with 'repopulating' the Uchiha clan, actual blood-related family without the utter mess of finding a girl he actually likes or raising a child himself, and of course all of the lovely connotation and symbolism of children.

Naruto's memories have been affected by the values of her new culture. What she forgets, and what she can remember…

There are about twenty thousand loopholes for the sufficiently analytical and/or skilled in the text given by cannon. And I've been getting tired of reading fanfics where the designated 'good' or 'special' character either figures out the test or forces the teamwork. But Kakashi-sensei really didn't appreciate going anal about grammer.. note, do not bother super-non-heroes about contract wording. They don't like it, and it's easier to just kill you and steal the money. Maybe I should write another fic just on bell test variations…

Mizuki. Typical traitor profile; feels unappreciated, resentful of injustices, enough actual skill to justify his belief of discrimination keeping him down. First, Mizuki goes from indignity to bad to situation on missions, then finally shuffled to the academy where Iruka can theoretically keep him in line.

In canon, he sees the the future potential and leaders of Konoha, and they are a bunch of incompetent, incapable brats, who will get all _he_ deserved for being born in the right place. Hinata, the heir of the most powerful clan, is a stuttering, _weak_, wreck who spends all her time mooning after Naruto. Naruto himself, Konoha's insurance for war and demon attacks is, as far as anyone can see, going to get them all killed in the field. Shika-Ino-Cho seem to be mostly useless brats, with a Shikamaru who never displayed intelligence, a timid and dependant Chouji, and fangirl Ino. Sasuke is probably world record entitled brat... and a flight risk. Shino is completely aloof, and Kiba competent but utterly unprofessional.

In this fic, Mizuki sees instead likable and competent kids, most of whom are struggling with something just as unfair as he. It's not that the world is against him, it's that the world is just a sick, sad place, with some moderately worthwhile parts.

The speech is from the sandaime, who sort of straddles the line between 'rough' and 'golden'. It came from seeing all the high-ranking ninja be skilled, but rather idealistic and flashy about it. For a powerful shinobi village? The only logical explanation is that it's an, admittedly _genius_, propoganda maneuver. Most of the ninja are invisible but doing the real, boring, work, while the idealistic and powerful enough to support that tactical choice get sent on high visibility functions, both inside the village and out. The clients see evidence of Konoha as 'the nice village'. And the other ninja see that it is possible to be a good ninja and human, that their leaders really do care about them, _don't give up because you are still capable of fighting for your values. _The sandaime told Mizuki to tell Naruto, because you really don't want an army-killer with access to a continent-destroyer resentful of your city because she isn't getting the recognition she deserves...

I know I used 'sannin' wrong. And it _will _have an explanation when that topic has more relevance…

How do other authors keep Kakashi in character? I'd appreciate tips, since I had a lot of trouble with that this chapter. I can't seem to get a handle on his speech patterns and personality. For this chapter, I used a lot of dialogue from the manga, but that's not a long-term solution…


End file.
